Labour, Economic Affairs, Science

World Trade Organization (WTO)

The WTO is the umbrella organization responsible for overseeing the implementation of all the multilateral and plurilateral agreements that have been negotiated or will be negotiated in the context of the International Trade system.

Objectives of the WTO, as they are presented in the preamble of the Agreement Establishing the WTO are: raising the standarts of living and incomes, ensuring full employment, expanding production and Trade and the optimal use of the world’s resources. It recognizes the need for positive efforts to ensure that developing countries and especially the least developed among them have a better share in internationale trade. Out of the 166 Member Sates of the WTO 2/3 come from the developing and less developed countries.

Functions

The Organization has the following functions:

-Administration of the WTO Agreements
-Forum for multilateral Trade negotiations
-Handling Trade Disputes
-Monitoring national trade policies through the Trade Policy Review Mechanism
-Providing technical Assistance and training for developing countries
-Cooperation with other international organizations

Structure of the WTO

The main body responsible for decision making is the Ministerial Conference, which takes place every two years. The next one, the14th Ministerial Conference, will take place in Yaoudé (Cameroon, 26-29 of March 2026). During the two years between the meetings of the Ministerials, the functions of the Conference are performed by the General Council., which is assisted in its work by the Council of Trade in Goods, the Council of Trade in Services and the Council of TRIPS

Secretariat

The Secretariat, located in Geneva, is headed by the General Director. Acting General Director is Dr. Ngozi-Okonjo Iweala (Nigeria), who was elected in 2021 for a term of four years (2021-2025), while she was re-elected, by consensus, for another term of four years starting at the end of August 2025.

Budget

The annual Budget of the Organization derives from the contributions of its 166 Member States. The biggest contributors are the EU as a whole, the USA and China.

Decision Making Process

The Agreement of the establishment of WTO stipulates that the WTO shall continue the GATT practice of decision making by consensus which is considered to have been reached when at the time a decision is taken not a single member country voices opposition to its adoption.