The organization

The WTO's overriding objective is to help trade flow smoothly, freely, fairly and predictably It does this by:

Administering trade agreements Acting as a forum for trade negotiations Settling trade disputes Reviewing national trade policies

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Assisting developing countries in trade policy issues, through tech­nical assistance and training programmes

. Cooperating with other international organizations

Structure

The WTO has nearly 150 members, accounting for over 97% of world trade. Around 30 others are negotiating membership.

Decisions are made by the entire membership. This is typically by Consensus. A majority vote is also possible but it has never been used in the WTO, and was extremely rare under the WTO's predecessor, GATT. The WTO's agreements have been ratified in all members' par­liaments.

The WTO's top level decision-making body is the Ministerial Con­ference which meets at least once every two years. The Fifth WTO Minis­terial Conference will be held in Cancun, Mexico from 10 to 14 Septem­ber 2003.

Below this is the General Council (normally ambassadors and heads of delegation in Geneva, but sometimes officials sent from members' cap­itals) which meets several times a year in the Geneva headquarters. The General Council also meets as the Trade Policy Review Body and the Dispute Settlement Body.

At the next level, the Goods Council, Services Council and Intellec­tual Property (TRIPS) Council report to the General Council.

Numerous specialized committees, working groups and working parties deal with the individual agreements and other areas such as the environment, development, membership applications and regional trade agreements.

See organization chart.

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Secretariat

The WTO Secretariat, based in Geneva, has around 550 staff and is headed by a director-general. Its annual budget is roughly 155 million Swiss francs. It does not have branch offices outside Geneva. Since deci­sions are taken by the members themselves, the Secretariat does not have the decision-making role that other international bureaucracies are given.

The Secretariat's main duties are to supply technical support for the various councils and committees and the ministerial conferences, to pro­vide technical assistance for developing countries, to analyze world trade, and to explain WTO affairs to the public and media.

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The Secretariat also provides some forms of legal assistance in the dispute settlement process and advises governments wishing to become members of the WTO.

The WTO agreements

How can you ensure that trade is as fair as possible, and as free as is practical? By negotiating rules and abiding by them.

The WTO's rules — the agreements — are the result of negotiations between the members. The current set were the outcome of the 1986—1994 Uruguay Round negotiations which included a major revi­sion of the original General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

GATT is now the WTO's principal rule-book for trade in goods. The Uruguay Round also created new rules for dealing with trade in ser­vices, relevant aspects of intellectual property, dispute settlement, and trade policy reviews. The complete set runs to some 30,000 pages consist­ing of about 30 agreements and separate commitments (called schedules) made by individual members in specific areas such as lower customs duty rates and services market-opening.

Through these agreements, WTO members operate a non-discrim­inatory trading system that spells out their rights and their obligations. Each country receives guarantees that its exports will be treated fairly and consistently in other countries' markets. Each promises to do the same for imports into its own market. The system also gives developing countries some flexibility in implementing their commitments.

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