What is WTO and what is the TRIPS Agreement?
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the institutional successor of the multilateral trade system under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was initiated after the second World War. The objective of GATT was to promote and regulate the liberalization of international trade. The result of the last round of talks under GATT (Uruguay Round, 1986 – 1993) is the WTO Convention, under which comes a variety of multilateral and plurilateral sectoral conventions. Member States of the WTO must observe all the multilateral conventions (Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods, General Agreements on Trade and Services, and Agreements on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), whereas adhesion to the plurilateral conventions is optional (aeronautics, government procurement, dairy products and beef). Trade in services is also the focus of the multilateral trade negotiations, and the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) is the result of these negotiati
