World Trade Organization (WTO)

The World Trade Organization (WTO, also spelled World Trade Organisation) is an international organisation that administers the rules governing trade between countries, provides a forum for negotiating new rules and settles disputes among its members. It was established on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, is headquartered in Geneva, and has 166 members accounting for about 98% of world trade. Its Director-General since March 2021 is Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria, who began a second four-year term on 1 September 2025.

The WTO succeeded the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), extending its rules on goods to services, intellectual property (IP) and agriculture. Unlike the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group, it lends no money; its power lies in binding commitments that members make to each other.

Think of a sports league. The teams agree on a rulebook, meet regularly to change the rules, and have referees who decide when one team says another has broken them. The league cannot force anyone to play, but teams that want to stay in follow the rules most of the time, because they gain from the same rules being applied to everyone else.

The WTO is that league for countries that trade. Its rulebook says, for example, that a member should not charge one partner a higher tariff than another, and its panels rule on complaints. Changing the rules needs everyone's agreement, which is why progress is often slow.

• Administering agreements. The main texts are GATT 1994 for goods, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and agreements on agriculture, health and safety standards, technical barriers, subsidies, anti-dumping and trade facilitation (in force since 2017).
• Negotiations. Members negotiate at the Ministerial Conference, held roughly every two years, and continuously in Geneva. The Doha Development Round, launched in 2001, stalled without an overall result, but smaller deals followed, including the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies agreed in 2022, which entered into force on 15 September 2025.
• Dispute settlement. Members bring complaints to panels whose rulings are adopted unless all members object, a big change from the GATT. Losing members are expected to comply or face authorised retaliation.
• Monitoring. Trade Policy Reviews examine each member's policies, and members must notify measures such as subsidies and new free trade agreement (FTA) deals.
• Assistance. Training and technical help for developing countries, many of which have special and differential treatment.

Core principles are non-discrimination, through most-favored-nation treatment (MFN) and national treatment, bound tariff ceilings and transparency. Exceptions allow free trade areas and customs unions, measures for health and security, and trade remedies.

The Ministerial Conference is the top decision-making body; between meetings, the General Council of all members runs the organisation, also sitting as the Dispute Settlement Body and Trade Policy Review Body. Decisions are normally taken by consensus, giving each member an effective veto. Accession requires negotiation with existing members: China joined on 11 December 2001 and Russia in 2012, while Comoros and Timor-Leste became the 165th and 166th members in 2024. The secretariat in Geneva is small by international standards.

Appeals from panels went to a seven-member Appellate Body. Since 11 December 2019 it has been unable to hear cases because the United States has blocked new appointments, arguing that the body overstepped its mandate, created obligations members never agreed to and took too long. Losing parties can now appeal "into the void", leaving rulings in limbo. A group of members, including the European Union, China, Japan, Canada and Brazil, set up the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA) in 2020 as a stopgap among themselves; the United States and India are not part of it. Reform talks have not restored a full appeal system.

The Thirteenth Ministerial Conference (MC13) was held in Abu Dhabi in February 2024. MC14, held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in March 2026, ended without consensus on renewing the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions, which lapsed for the first time in about 25 years, and major decisions on reform and agriculture were deferred to Geneva. Meanwhile, large unilateral tariffs, including US measures under national-security and emergency laws since 2018 and especially 2025, and rival responses from trading partners have tested the system's rules.

Criticism comes from several directions. Development campaigners and some governments argue that TRIPS raised the cost of medicines and that farm rules still favour rich countries. US administrations of both parties have argued that WTO rules failed to deal with China's state-led economy and that developing-country self-designation is too generous. Advocates of protectionism and of industrial policy say the rules limit national choices, while defenders of free trade warn that weakening the WTO raises uncertainty, especially for small economies that cannot match large ones in bilateral bargaining. Most economists credit the system with keeping average tariffs low and predictable through crises such as the 2008 financial crisis, while acknowledging its negotiating paralysis. Its role is central to debates about globalization and the spread of each trade bloc outside it.

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