WTO

See World Trade Organization.

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World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO was formed in 1995 to enforce the regulations established by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and several other international trade agreements.

Composed of representatives from 150 nations and observers from additional nations, it regulates international trade with the goal of helping it to flow as smoothly and freely as possible.

Advocates praise the WTO for helping create an increasingly global economy and bringing prosperity to developing nations through increased trade.

Critics, however, assert that industrialized nations such the United States, Canada, and the countries of the European Union have used the WTO to open trade with developing nations while disregarding these nations' environmental and labor-related practices.