The WTO

The World Trade Organisation

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is an international organisation dealing with the global rules of trade between nations. It seeks to encourage multi­national trade in goods and services by liberalising world trade for member countries by reducing tariffs and quotas and opening domestic markets to foreign competition. It is both a forum for talks and a court which can rule on trade disputes between countries The WTO has more than 140 members, accounting for over 97% of world trade.The key characteristics are:

• Promotion of freer trade

• Where protectionism exists, it must be transparent (ie tariff rather than non-tarriff barriers)

• Most favoured nation state- all nations must be treated equally- they should not have any favourites