WTO

FACT FILE

Location:Geneva, Switzerland Established:1 January 1995 Created by: Uruguay Round negotiations (1986-94) Membership: 153 countries on 23 July 2008 Budget: 196 million Swiss francs for 2011 Secretariat staff: 640 Head: Pascal Lamy (Director-General) Functions: • Administering WTO trade agreements • Forum for trade negotiations • Handling trade disputes • Monitoring national trade policies • Technical assistance and training for developing countries • Cooperation with other international organizations   The result is assurance. Consumers and producers know that they can enjoy secure supplies and greater choice of the finished products, components, raw materials and services that they use. Producers and exporters know that foreign markets will remain open to them. The result is also a more prosperous, peaceful and accountable economic world. Virtually all decisions in the WTO are taken by consensus among all member countries and they are ratified by members' parliaments. Trade friction is channelled into the WTO's dispute settlement process where the focus is on interpreting agreements and commitments, and how to ensure that countries' trade policies conform with them. That way, the risk of disputes spilling over into political or military conflict is reduced. By lowering trade barriers, the WTO’s system also breaks down other barriers between peoples and nations. At the heart of the system — known as the multilateral trading system — are the WTO’s agreements, negotiated and signed by a large majority of the world’s trading nations, and ratified in their parliaments. These agreements are the legal ground-rules for international commerce. Essentially, they are contracts, guaranteeing member countries important trade rights. They also bind governments to keep their trade policies within agreed limits to everybody’s benefit. The agreements were negotiated and signed by governments. But their purpose is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business. The goal is to improve the welfare of the peoples of the member countries

The basic structure of the WTO agreements: how the six main areas fit together — the umbrella WTO Agreement, goods, services, intellectual property, disputes and trade policy reviews.
Umbrella	AGREEMENT ESTABLISHING WTO
	Goods	Services	Intellectual property
Basic principles	GATT	GATS	TRIPS
Additional details	Other goods agreements and annexes	Services annexes
Market access commitments	Countries’ schedules of commitments	Countries’ schedules of commitments(and MFN exemptions)
Dispute settlement	DISPUTE SETTLEMENT
Transparency	TRADE POLICY REVIEWS

Source: http://www.wto.org/index.htm