The World Trade Organization (WTO) came into force on 1 January 1995 and is based in Geneva. More than 150 nations are members. The WTO’s top decision making body is the Ministerial Conference, which is normally held every two years. In December, the Ministerial Conference is expected to accept Russia as a new WTO member.
The WTO is a relatively powerful international organization. Its dispute settlement body can impose sanctions to enforce decisions on member countries’ disagreements over what WTO rules mean in practice.
Other important results included
– the end of textiles quotas at the beginning of 2005,
– the Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and
– the General Agreement on Trades in Services (GATS).
The next summits in Geneva in 1998 and Seattle in 1999 similarly failed. Protests, which are now considered the beginning of the movement of globalization sceptics, overshadowed the meeting in Seattle. Civil society organizations argued that the WTO served the interests of rich nations in exploiting the Third World.
At the turn of the Millennium, moreover, a global dispute erupted over pharma patents, which, according to TRIPS, are protected all over the world. Brazil, Thailand, South Africa and other nations, however, urgently needed low cost HIV/AIDS medication.
The Ministerial Conference in Doha in 2001 dealt with this matter by allowing members to break patents if doing so is necessary to protect public health because those who own intellectual property rights do not make essential medication available at acceptable prices.