What is The World Trade Organization?

Welcome to the Investors Trading Academy talking glossary of financial terms and events. Our word of the day is “World Trade Organization” The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business. The WTO was formed in 1995 to enforce the regulations established by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and several other international trade agreements. Composed of representatives from 150 nations and observers from additional nations, it regulates international trade with the goal of helping it to flow as smoothly and freely as possible. Advocates praise the WTO for helping to create an increasingly global economy and bringing prosperity to developing nations through increased trade. Critics, however, assert that industrialized nations such the US, Canada, and the countries of the European Union have used the WTO to open trade with developing nations while disregarding these nations’ environmental and labor-related practices. By Barry Norman, Investors Trading Academy