The WTO or World Trade
Organization is the only international body
dealing with the rules of trade between nations. Membership is
voluntary and at the moment the WTO has nearly 150 member
nations, who together represent over 97% of global trade. Over 30
additional countries are negotiating membership.
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland,
the WTO is completely separate from the United Nations and was not formally established until
January 1, 1995.
The WTO provides the framework for
member governments to negotiate trade agreements and resolve trade
disputes. Trade agreements have the status of international treaties.
They are negotiated by consensus and signed by ministerial-level
representatives of member governments, but they do not enter into
force until ratified by two-thirds of the national legislatures
(parliaments) of member nations.
| The scope of trade agreements has expanded over the years.
Initially focused on agricultural products and manufactured goods,
WTO treaties now cover services and intellectual property: |
 |
General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the initial
treaty, was first adopted in 1947 and substantially revised in
1994. |
 |
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) entered into
force January 1995 and covers banking, insurance,
telecommunications, transport, travel and hotels. |
 |
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement
(TRIPs) also entered into force January 1995 and covers
copyrights, patents, trademarks, industrial designs, integrated
circuit layout and trade secrets. |
| Barriers to trade are
mechanisms devised by national governments to give their domestic
producers an advantage in their home markets over imports from
other nations. Three principal types of barriers to trade have
been recognized by WTO agreements: |
 |
Tariffs (customs duties) are a governmental tax levied on
imported goods or services that is not assessed against similar
goods or services produced within the country. Lowering tariff
levels on imports remains a substantial area of concern,
especially among developing nations. |
 |
"Dumping" refers to the practice of selling exported
goods below-cost with the aid of government subsidies. Because
this tends to drive the importing nation's own producers out of
business, "anti-dumping" agreements are a contentious
issue. |
 |
Technical barriers to trade are overly-restrictive government
mandates posing as technical specifications for safety or the
protection of human health and the environmental, but whose real
intent is to restrict access to domestic markets.
|
The WTO serves as a sort of
clearinghouse for proposed environmental and safety regulations
because the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)
requires national governments to notify the WTO Secretariat whenever
their proposed technical regulations or conformity assessment
procedures are not based upon international standards.
 |
| Nazioni facenti parte del WTO nel 2012 |