WTO as a Public Formal Organization

Abstract

The WTO Marrakesh Agreement created the WTO as a new international organization with a legal personality.1 The objectives of the WTO are set out in the preamble of the Marrakesh Agreement, which lists raising standards of living, full employment, a large and steadily growing volume of real income and effective demand, an expanding production of and trade in goods and services (while allowing for the optimal use of the world’s resources in accordance with the objective of sustainable development) and protection and preservation of the environment. In the preamble, the WTO members expressed their desire to work toward these objectives by concluding agreements on trade liberalization. The 2001 Doha Ministerial Declaration also stressed that an open and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system and the “acting for the protection of the environment” and the “promotion of sustainable development” could and had to be mutually supportive (WTO 2003: 3).