International Trade Law and the WTO
How the World Trade Organization creates and enforces rules for global trade, and the disputes that shape international commerce.
The Rules-Based Trading System
The World Trade Organization (WTO), established in 1995 as the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), provides the legal framework for international trade. Its core principles include most-favored-nation treatment (trade advantages given to one member must be extended to all), national treatment (imports must be treated no less favorably than domestic goods), and the prohibition of quantitative restrictions on trade.
The WTO administers over a dozen agreements covering goods (GATT), services (GATS), and intellectual property (TRIPS). Decisions are made by consensus among its 164 members, which gives the system legitimacy but makes reform extremely difficult. The Doha Development Round, launched in 2001 to address the needs of developing countries, effectively collapsed by 2008 and has never been formally concluded.
