WTO founder members (January 1, 1995) WTO subsequent members

WTO founder members (January 1, 1995) Headquarters : Centre William Rappard, Geneva, Switzerland 153 member states English, French, Spanish

Membership Official languages :

Director-General
Staff

:
:

Pascal Lamy
625

Budget 189 million Swiss francs (approx. 182 million USD) in 2009.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization designed by its founders to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1947.

The World Trade Organization deals with regulation of trade between participating countries; it provides a framework for negotiating and formalising trade agreements

The WTO has 153 members, representing more than 97% of total world trade and 30 observers, most seeking membership. The WTO is governed by a ministerial conference, meeting every two years; a general council, which implements the conference's policy decisions and is responsible for day-to-day administration; and a director-general, who is appointed by the ministerial conference.

Among the various functions of the WTO, these are regarded by analysts as the most important: * It oversees the implementation, administration and operation of the covered agreements. * It provides a forum for negotiations and for settling disputes.

MINISTERIAL CONFERENCES

1. First ministerial conference held in the year 1996, in singapore. Disagreements between largely developed and developing economies emerged during this conference over four issues initiated by this conference, which led to them being collectively referred to as the "Singapore issues".

2. Second ministerial conference held in the year 1998, in Geneva in Switzerland.

3. Third ministerial conference held in the year 1999, in Washington. It ended failure, with massive demonstration and police and national guard crowd control efforts drawing worldwide attention.

4. fourth ministerial conference held in the year 2001, in Doha in gulf nation of Qatar. Doha development round was launched at this conference. The conference also approved the joining of china.

5. Fifth ministerial conference held in the year 2003, in Mexico. Aiming at forging agreement on the Doha round.

5. Sixth ministerial conference held in the year 2005, in hongkong.