What does the World Trade Organization’s abbreviation WTO stand for?

WTO stands for World Trade Organization. The organization is the principal international institution dealing with global trade rules among governments.

The WTO was established by the Marrakesh Agreement, which was signed on 15 April 1994 at the end of the Uruguay Round. It began operating on 1 January 1995, replacing the earlier provisional GATT structure with a broader institutional framework.

Its agreements cover trade in goods, services and trade-related aspects of intellectual property. The organization also provides forums for negotiations, monitors trade policies and administers procedures for settling disputes between members.

WTO is sometimes confused with other trade-related bodies, including the World Customs Organization and the International Trade Centre. Those organizations have different mandates: customs cooperation and trade promotion support, respectively. The WTO is specifically the organization that administers the multilateral trade agreement system.