World Trade Organisation (WTO)

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the principal international body governing rules of trade between nations. It came into being on 1 January 1995, succeeding the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which had provided a provisional framework for multilateral trade since 1948. The WTO is headquartered at Geneva, Switzerland, and India has been a founder member since its establishment.

Objectives of the WTO include: raising standards of living and ensuring full employment through expanded production and trade; ensuring trade is conducted on the basis of non-discrimination, chiefly through the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) principle (a trade concession given to one member must be extended to all members) and national treatment (imported goods, once inside a country, should be treated no less favourably than domestically produced goods); progressively reducing tariffs and other barriers to trade through negotiated rounds; and providing a rule-based, predictable trading system that also gives special consideration to the needs of developing and least-developed countries.

Functions of the WTO include: administering the multilateral trade agreements that member countries have signed; acting as a forum for trade negotiations among member governments; operating a dispute-settlement mechanism so trade disagreements between members are resolved through agreed procedures rather than unilateral action; monitoring national trade policies of member countries for transparency; and providing technical assistance and training to developing-country members to help them participate effectively in the trading system. …