On what date did the World Trade Organization begin operating?

The World Trade Organization began operating on 1 January 1995.

The WTO was created by the Marrakesh Agreement, signed on 15 April 1994 at the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. It replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade as the central institution for administering multilateral trade rules, although GATT 1994 remained part of the new WTO agreements.

The date is sometimes confused with 15 April 1994, when the founding agreement was signed, or 1 January 1948, when GATT entered into force. The WTO’s creation also brought services and intellectual property into the multilateral trade system through the GATS and TRIPS agreements.

The organization’s first Ministerial Conference was held in Singapore in 1996. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland, and its membership has expanded substantially since the original group of founding participants.