The WTO as an International Organization

Abstract

The Marrakesh Agreement created the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 to be a new international organization (JO) with legal personality, and endowed it with decision-making processes, an institutional structure, and several distinctive functions (Matsushita et al. 2003: 14). The organization is not a UN organ. Although the WTO is comparatively young, it benefits from experience with trade liberalization and dispute settlement under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) regime, which was established in 1947. The preamble of the Marrakesh Agreements lists the improvement of living standards and sustainable development as objectives of the new organization; however, the WTO may pursue its goals exclusively through trade liberalization.