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 The World Trade Organization

Have you ever wondered who helped make all the rules and regulations for how

businesses and countries trade goods with each other? Today's global marketplace

is extremely complex with thousands of moving parts! "any of the electronics

clothes you wear or food you en#oy may be partly made possible by theagreements and policies that the World Trade Organization has helped establish!

 The World Trade Organization $WTO% is a global organization that helps countries

and producers of goods deal fairly and smoothly with conducting their business

across international borders! &t mainly does this through WTO agreements which

are negotiated and signed by a large ma#ority of the trading nations in the world!

 These documents act as contracts that provide the legal framework for conducting

business among nations! There are several groups within the WTO with the highest

decisionmaking authority going to a group known as the "inisterial (onferencewhich can make decisions on all matters and trade disputes among members!

History

 The WTO was o)cially created in *anuary of +,,- and essentially replaced the

.eneral /greement on Tari0s and Trade $./TT% which had been in force since +,12

a few years after the 3econd World War! 4efore the WTO was created an initiative

to start something similar known as the &nternational Trade Organization $&TO% took

place! 5nfortunately the &TO treaty was not approved by the 5!3! and a few other

countries and ultimately never went into e0ect!

&n the +,26s as the world economies became more global in trade and business it

became evident that ./TT was not built or structured to address many of the new

global trading challenges that were arising! /s a result the biggest trade

negotiating event on record began in +,27! &t was known as the 5ruguay 8ound

seeing as it took place in 9unta del :ste 5ruguay! One of the ;nal accomplishments

of this round was the creation of the WTO! The WTO is currently working on new

negotiations and agreements known as the

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for all member nations so that they may increase the wellbeing of their countries

and standards of living for their citizens! &t works to educate and inform companies

and governments on the acceptable rules that govern trade $i!e! imports and

exports%! When issues arise it works to settle disputes based on the legal

agreements that the countries have adopted and rati;ed in their governments!

&n short the WTO does many things! Here are #ust a few of its main focuses