WTO – World Trade Organization, GATT – General Agreement On Tariffs And Trade

Abstract

The principal organs of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are the Ministerial Conference which meets every two years, the General Council as permanent body which takes the role of the Ministerial Conference between its meetings, and the Secretariat which is led by a Director-General . The WTO copied the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) tradition of passing consensual decisions. Voting is only admissible under special circumstances. It is often stated that the objective and purpose of the WTO is free trade. In a general manner, this correctly repeats the programs and successes of the organization and the order of global trade on which it is based. Due to their long development under GATT, the rules concerning trade in goods, which were largely taken over into the WTO and further expanded are vast and detailed. Keywords: GATT; General Council ; global trade; World Trade Organization (WTO)