Glossary:World Trade Organization (WTO)
The World Trade Organization, abbreviated as WTO, is an international organisation with a membership covering 164 countries (as of July 2016). The WTO also has several candidate members in the process of joining.
The WTO is the only global international organisation dealing with the rules of trade between nations. WTO sets the global rules for trade, providing a forum for trade negotiations and for settling disputes between WTO members.
At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the vast majority of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their national parliaments. The WTO's goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business effectively and efficiently on a global basis. The latest round of WTO multilateral trade negotiations is known as the Doha Development Agenda (DDA).