Overview of The WTO

 Objective of presentation

 WTO: The Beginnings

 Growth in Trade Underway

 A New Multilateral Organization

 The WTO: what is it?

 How does the WTO function?

 Principles of the Trading System

 Provisions for developing countries

 Progressing by packages

 The Round to end all rounds

 The WTO Agreement

 Liberalising trade in goods

 Textiles - back in the mainstream

 Agriculture: fairer markets for all

 Trade remedies

 Standards and procedures

 Administrative procedures

 Services: rules for growth and investment

 Services: the key rules

 Services: Better Access to Markets

 Intellectual Property: protection and enforcement of rights

 TRIPS: what does it cover?

 Settling Disputes: the heart of the system

 Meetings of Ministers

  Singapore Ministerial

 Geneva and Seattle Ministerials

 Doha Ministerial Meeting

 Cancun Ministerial Meeting

 Recent Developments

The WTO Agreement

What is it?

So what is the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization? In formal terms, it is the legal instrument through which all the countries participating in the Uruguay Round decided to create the WTO.  It is a short agreement and includes provisions on a variety of matters. These include the scope and functions of the WTO and its relations with other organizations. It also sets out matters relating to the legal status of the WTO and its decision-making procedures.

More than a short agreement

All the multilateral trade agreements relating to services, agriculture, intellectual property and so on which emerged from the Uruguay Round are annexed to the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization. As a result, the expression "the WTO Agreement" is understood to cover the totality of all the agreements. These texts are to be found in the volume entitled The Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations: The Legal Texts.

Bad news and good news

But the WTO Agreement is an intimidating document. Its table of contents is a list of about 60 agreements, annexes, decisions and understandings. They are complex and at times very difficult to understand. The good news, however, is that while the WTO Agreement is difficult, and deals with very different matters, the individual multilateral trade agreements are all underpinned by the same core principles such as non-discrimination and transparency.

Where are we today?

So returning to the two key roles for the multilateral trading system - liberalizing trade and creating and enforcing the rules of the road - it is perhaps time to take stock of where we are today in terms of the liberalization process and the rules that govern international trade.