World Trade Organization

Established in Geneva in 1995, the World Trade Organization (WTO) succeeded the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

The GATT – which was introduced in 1947 – was the key element for the regulation of world trade for 48 years. The GATT aimed to substantially reduce tariffs and other barriers to trade, and protect and ensure free and unrestricted trade between countries.

The details of trade policy under the GATT were specified in a total of eight rounds of negotiations, with a focus being placed on the elimination of tariffs and quantitative restrictions. By the early 1970s, the need for reforming and expanding the trade rules had grown so large that the priority of the work shifted to improving these rules.

The conclusion of the ‘Uruguay Round’ (1986 to 1994) and the establishment of the WTO helped extend international cooperation on trade policy to new areas. The WTO lays down rules not only for trade in goods (GATT), but also for trade in services (GATS), individual property rights (TRIPS) – to some extent at least –, subsidy rules, and as part of a plurilateral agreement, public procurement (GPA).

Objectives and responsibilities

The WTO’s objectives include making its members’ trade policies as transparent as possible, agreeing to, respecting and monitoring compliance with the joint multilateral trade rules, and the continuous liberalisation of world trade by reducing/eliminating tariffs and other barriers to trade and by streamlining customs procedures. All of these measures are intended to help strengthen economic output and competitiveness. Particular attention is paid to the special development interests of the poorer and poorest members.

The responsibilities of the WTO can be broken down into three pillars:

• Forum for negotiations between its members on the reduction of barriers to trade:
  
  The fourth Ministerial Conference in Qatar, the “Doha Round”, set the target of strengthening the world trade system, pressing ahead with further market liberalisation, and improving the integration of developing countries into the global economy.
  
  
• Monitoring the WTO agreements and the national trade policies of the WTO members:
  This takes place in the bodies of the WTO, where notifications by the WTO members of specific agreements are reviewed and interpretations of specific obligations are discussed, and via the periodical reviews of the trade policies of the WTO members. Also, together with the World Bank and UNCTAD, the WTO fulfils a G20 mandate to monitor national trade policy action in the wake of the economic and financial crisis.
  
  
• Dispute settlement in cases where a WTO agreement is breached:
  Disputes between the WTO members on the interpretation and breaching of the agreements and are handled in a dedicated
  multilateral body ausgetragen.
  
  

Principles

The multilateral trade system of the WTO is based on a number of fundamental principles which the members agree to comply with when they design their trade policies.

• Most-favoured-nation treatment (Article I GATT): The principle of most-favoured-nation treatment obliges all WTO members to grant all the advantages that they concede in trade in goods to one trading partner also to every other WTO member and its nationals, without delay and unconditionally. This also applies to trade in services (Art. II GATS) and in connection with trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (Art. IV TRIPS).
  
  
• National treatment (Article III GATT): The principle of national treatment requires of the WTO members that foreign goods and their suppliers must not be treated less favourably than domestic goods and their suppliers. The multilateral trade system does not prohibit WTO members from protecting their own economy from foreign competition. But this external protection must have the same impact on everyone.
  
  
• Transparency (Art. X GATT): Rules and restrictions on foreign trade should be transparent. The WTO rules require publication of these rules and, in many cases, provide that the WTO should inform the WTO Secretariat of changes (notifications).
  
  
• Liberalisation / reduction of trade barriers: The WTO offers a negotiating forum serving the reduction of all types of trade barriers. Here, a distinction is made between tariff and non-tariff trade barriers. The latter are, for example, quantitative trade restrictions, import and export licences, subsidies, discriminatory safety, environmental and health rules, and excessive administrative provisions.
  
  
• Reciprocity: The WTO is the basis for a system of multilateral concessions. As a result of the multilateral trade negotiations, each WTO member is bound by certain parameters – e.g. a certain percentage-based tariff rate imposed on the import of a product. When the WTO members enter the trade negotiations, they must be guided by the principle of reciprocity. This states that the mutually granted concessions must be of equal weight and balanced. The developing countries have a special situation: the industrialised countries are not expected to require them to make equivalent concessions.

The WTO currently has 164 members. Its newest member, Afghanistan, joined the Organization on 29 July 2016. Negotiations with 21 other countries – including Algeria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Comoros – are currently ongoing. Once the WTO Ministerial Conference or, representing it, the General Council of the WTO accepts the accession of a country to the WTO, the accession candidates have six months to ratify the accession agreements. They become WTO members 30 days after they have formally notified the WTO of their acceptance. Germany was a founding member of the WTO in 1995.

The WTO’s decision-making bodies are the Ministerial Conference, the General Council, a number of additional councils and committees, and the WTO Secretariat.

Ministerial conference

The Ministerial Conference is the WTO’s supreme decision-making body. It consists of representatives of all WTO members – in most cases, economic affairs, trade or foreign ministers – and meets at least once every two years. The last (12th) WTO Ministerial Conference took place in Geneva from 12-17 June 2022. The Ministerial Conference is responsible for the functioning of the WTO and decides not least about the deployment of specific councils, the appointment of the WTO Directors-General, the definition of their powers, and changes to WTO rules. Decisions in the Ministerial Conference are normally taken in a consensus. Here, each WTO member country has one vote.

The next (13th) Ministerial Conference is taking place in Abu Dhabi from 26-29 February 2024.

General Council and its functions

The General Council of the WTO is responsible for handling the ongoing WTO affairs between the sessions of the Ministerial Conference, and takes decisions by a simple, two-thirds, three-quarters majority or unanimously – depending on their impact. In formal terms, it acts not only as the “General Council”, but also as the “Dispute Settlement Body” to survey compliance with WTO conflict resolution rules, and as the “Trade Policy Review Body”, which regularly places a spotlight on the developments in the trade policies of the WTO members.

Other councils and bodies

The General Council is supported by other bodies too: the Council for Trade in Goods, the Council for Trade in Services, the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, the Committee on Trade and Development, the Committee on Balance-of-Payments Restrictions, and the Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration.

Director-General and Secretariat

The main tasks of the Secretariat include the preparation and holding of negotiations between the WTO contracting parties, advising them, analysing and presenting the development of world trade, and supporting activities relating to the dispute settlement procedures.
Since 2021 Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has held the office of the WTO Director-General – the first woman and first African to hold this post. Germany and the EU had given determined backing to her nomination.

From 9-13 November 2001, the members of the WTO met in Qatar for the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference to establish a new multilateral round of world trade liberalisation. The negotiations launched back then are still ongoing and are called the “Doha Round” or Doha Development Agenda (DDA). The goal is to facilitate trade across the board, particularly in the areas of industrial and agricultural products and of services (GATS).

Other important negotiations include the introduction of rules on anti-dumping and subsidies, reducing tariffs on environmental goods, and streamlining customs procedures. The current Doha Round focuses on better integrating developing countries into the global economy by granting special and preferential treatment to these countries.

Main content of the Doha Ministerial Declaration

• Mandate for negotiations to improve market access for agricultural and industrial goods and for services by reducing tariffs, with a focus on high tariffs, and to reduce trade-distorting domestic support and subsidies in the agricultural sector
  
  
• Mandate for negotiations on trade facilitation via an acceleration of customs procedures
  
  
• Special and preferential treatment in favour of the developing countries and the “least developed countries” (LDCs) in all areas of negotiation
  
  
• Mandate for negotiations to strengthen the WTO rules (e.g. anti-dumping and subsidies)
  
  
• Mandate for negotiations in the environmental sector on the relationship between multilateral environmental agreements and WTO rules, and on reductions in trade barriers for environmental goods and services
  
  
• Negotiations on investments and competition

At the WTO’s 9th Ministerial Conference, which was held in Bali in December 2013, the then 160 members adopted the Trade Facilitation Agreement (which streamlines customs procedures). It enters into force once three quarters of the signatories have completed ratification. Any new member automatically joins this agreement through accession to the WTO. The agreement has led to some first successes. For example, two decisions on public stockholding for ensuring food security for the poorest parts of the population were made, some of the least developed countries were given preferential or easier access to the services market, and guidelines for streamlining rules of origin for preferential access to the markets were adopted, as were guidelines for further reducing tariffs and providing support for cotton.

At the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference held in Nairobi from 15 to 18 December 2015, the countries agreed to reduce export subsidies in the agricultural sector and to tighten rules for export credits, state trading companies and food aid. In addition, another ‘development package’ focusing on the least developed countries (LDCs) was adopted. This package includes agreements on preferential rules of origin as well as preferences for LDCs in the services sector (LDC waiver). These agreements are to help improve and streamline the integration of these countries into the multilateral trading system.

Another important step which remains to be completed is the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) as laid out in the Bali package. However, this package will only enter into force if ratified by at least two-thirds of the WTO’s 164 member states. The ratification of the Bali package by the EU which took place on 5 October 2015 was an important step. The EU commands 28 votes in the WTO. Apart from the EU, 35 other WTO members have ratified the TFA. These include the U.S., Japan and China.

At the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires from 10-13 December 2017, it proved impossible – in contrast to the preceding Ministerial Conferences – to adopt a meaningful package of decisions. However, the path was cleared for future work in the Organisation. There was agreement on a programme of work to reduce illegal fisheries subsidies. Corresponding rules were to be adopted at the next Ministerial Conference in 2019. Further to this, the discussions in the fields of electronic commerce, agriculture, market access in the non-agricultural sector, development, intellectual property, trade and development and trade and the environment were continued. Numerous WTO members drew up joint declarations on the subjects of electronic commerce, investment facilitation and micro- and small and medium-sized enterprises. These could form the basis for negotiations by groups of interested WTO members (“plurilateral negotiations”).

General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT)

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is an international treaty concluded in 1947 by its 23 founding members, including the U.S., the United Kingdom and Chile. Germany acceded to the system of agreements in 1951. The aim of the GATT is to orient the trade and economic relations of the contracting parties to improved standards of living and full employment, to keep boosting the level of real incomes and demand, to develop the full use of the resources of the world, and to boost output.

In order to attain these goals, the contracting parties agreed to reduce tariffs and other barriers in international trade, to simplify the import and export of goods, and to establish a process to resolve conflicts.

General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) entered into force on 1 January 1995 and is the first multilateral agreement on ongoing liberalisation of international trade in services. It basically covers all areas of services (e.g. financial services, telecommunications, tourism), apart from services provided by the state and services related to air transport.

The GATS permits the WTO members to undertake “tailored” liberalisation, i.e. to individually stipulate the degree of liberalisation in the various services sectors. The agreement explicitly recognises the right of WTO members to regulate the provision of services in order to attain their national policy goals.

New negotiations on services began in the WTO in February 2000 on the basis of a negotiating mandate already included in the GATS (Article XIX) with a view to a gradual increase in the global level of liberalisation. An initial organisational phase was concluded in March 2001 with the adoption of guidelines for the negotiations.

The launch of the world trade round by the 4th WTO Ministerial Conference on 14 November 2001 (the Doha Round) also gave an important boost to the negotiations on services. The Ministerial Declaration from Doha confirmed the guidelines of March 2001 and mapped out the timetable for the negotiations. As a result, the negotiations on services were included as a central issue in the ongoing Doha Round.

Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

The TRIPS Agreement requires the WTO members to comply with minimum standards for all types of intellectual property, and especially for patents, authors’ rights, trade marks and services marks, design patents and designations of geographical origin. It has been in force since 1 January 1996 for industrialised countries, since 1 January 2000 for developing countries and countries in transition, since 1 January 2006 for the least developed countries, and since 2016 for pharmaceutical patents.

Agreement on Agriculture

The WTO Agreement on Agriculture is a special part of the provisions of the GATT. In the Uruguay Round of the GATT, this agreement included fixed rules for the international agricultural trade in the GATT for the first time. It imposes an absolute restriction on trade-distorting subsidies in the agriculture sector and provides an exhaustive definition of what support measures are unreservedly admissible. Price support and product-related subsidies without quantitative restrictions are trade-distorting, as are export refunds. Europe has removed almost all the trade-distorting subsidies in the course of the various agricultural policy reforms, and the ongoing reform does not envisage any more funding for export refunds.
The absolute level of agricultural tariffs is restricted by the agreement; additional safeguard duties may only be imposed in exceptional cases.
In the context of the Doha negotiations, trade-distorting subsidies are to be cut further, all forms of export subsidies abolished, and agricultural tariffs significantly cut. The special and differential treatment for developing countries is an integral element of all the parts of the negotiations.
The aim of the Federal Government in the negotiations on agriculture is to ensure both the continued existence and the future viability of the European model of multifunctional agriculture, and to enable developing countries to have
equal participation in world trade.

Anti-Dumping Agreement

The adoption of the GATT in 1947 introduced not only the general principles of free trade but also uniform principles in Article VI for fending off significant distortions of competition in international trade caused by dumping and subsidies by means of anti-dumping / countervailing duties.

The rules of the WTO’s Anti-Dumping Agreement pursue the aim of making the instrument sustainably competition-enhancing via strict procedural rules and a large number of definitions, and of preventing any misuse of this instrument for protectionist purposes. The WTO’s Anti-Dumping Code gives the industry of an importing country the possibility to defend itself against significant distortions of competition in international trade resulting from dumping.

Together with the European Commission and other EU Member States, Germany pays strict attention to ensuring that the legal preconditions for anti-dumping measures are strictly observed throughout the WTO and that the anti-dumping instrument is not misused for protectionist purposes. Germany’s export-oriented industry is increasingly affected by competition-distorting measures by third countries and their unjustified anti-dumping measures. There is therefore great interest in strengthening international discipline by improving the WTO Code in the context of a new WTO Round. At the 4th WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha in 2001, intensive discussions were followed by the decision to launch negotiations to strengthen the WTO rules on anti-dumping.

Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement)

The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement), which was negotiated in the Uruguay Round and entered into force on 1 January 1995, is intended to prevent the establishment of unnecessary TBTs and to promote mutual recognition and harmonisation. The aim is to guarantee the right of members to adopt certain rules to attain a justified outcome, whilst at the same time to prevent the adoption of protectionist measures.

The TBT Agreement sets out the rules to be observed by state and non-state bodies when introducing technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures. According to the TBT Agreement, the technical regulations and the conformity assessment procedures must not be more trade-restricting than is needed to attain a justified goal. Also, they must be transparent and non-discriminatory. It provides that the WTO members must use relevant international standards as a basis for their technical regulations, and thus serves international harmonisation. Finally, it promotes the mutual recognition of technical rules and conformity assessment procedures.

The notification procedure introduced for this purpose obliges all WTO members to grant other members access via the WTO Secretariat to the planned technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures. The notification forms and most of the notified texts are available to the public via the websites of the European Commission’s TBT Enquiry Point. Information on technical regulations can be obtained from the national enquiry point (PDF: 774 KB) (TBT Enquiry Point Deutschland) in the German Institute for Standardization.

WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement)

The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures stipulates what rules are admissible to protect the health of people, animals and plants. It only covers rules which can have a direct or indirect impact on international trade. SPS measures may only be taken to the extent that this is necessary to protect health. In this context, the SPS Agreement obliges the members to base their measures on existing international standards of the Codex Alimentarius, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). These are internationally agreed and thus in principle define the necessary level of protection. Requirements going beyond these agreements can only be imposed by a member if it can show, on the basis of a risk assessment undertaken in line with scientific principles, that they are necessary.

Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

The Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) is a plurilateral agreement under the umbrella of the WTO (Art. III(2) WTO Agreement). This means that it is binding not on all WTO members, but only on those which have ratified it. In addition to rules to ensure a fair and transparent procurement procedure, it contains in particular the respective obligations of the contracting states regarding access to their procurement markets (coverage). These bilaterally negotiated obligations are stipulated in annexes containing the covered contracting authorities, contract thresholds, subject-matter of contracts, reservations etc.

Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs)

The agreement, which was negotiated during the Uruguay Round, only covers investment measures which affect world trade. Certain investment measures can have trade-restricting and trade-distorting effects. The agreement states that no member should implement an investment measure that violates the provisions of Article III GATT (national treatment) or Article XI GATT (quantitative restrictions). A list of prohibited TRIMs, such as local content requirements, is part of the agreement. The agreement also set up a Committee on TRIMs which monitors the implementation of these obligations.

Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA)

The Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) entered into force on 22 February 2017. The TFA covers a number of measures to improve cross-border trade in goods via greater transparency, the streamlining of customs procedures, the reduction of bureaucracy and greater cooperation between customs authorities. In this way, the TFA should help to cut the costs of trade. These costs could be cut by up to 16% in developing countries and the least developed countries, and by up to 10% in industrialised countries.

Furthermore, the TFA contains special provisions granting developing countries greater flexibility in their implementation and technical and financial support towards the establishment of permanent capacities. In order to support the implementation of the agreement, Germany, together with other industrial states and in cooperation with companies operating around the world, has established the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation. Also, the Alliance for Trade Facilitation was set up in Germany.

The negotiations on the TFA were completed at the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali (3-6 December 2013). It is the first multilateral trade agreement since the foundation of the World Trade Organization in the mid-1990s.

The Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) that sets out rules and procedures for the settlement of disputes was agreed on in the Uruguay Round and is seen as the key element of the multilateral trading system. The DSU aims to make the multilateral trading system more secure and predictable. Unlike the earlier GATT dispute settlement system, the DSU approach covers all WTO agreements and is the world’s first mandatory intergovernmental procedure.

The dispute settlement takes place in the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), which is provided by the WTO’s General Council (i.e. the totality of the WTO members).

The process of a dispute settlement procedure commences with bilateral consultations between the parties to the dispute, in order ideally to bring about an amicable solution. If the consultations fail, the complainant applies for an independent dispute settlement body, a “panel”, to be convened and produce a final report after six months. This report is not a ruling, but contains recommendations which are adopted by the DSB and thus become binding.

If a party appeals, an Appellate Body hears the appeal. The Appellate Body reviews the panel’s decision in terms of legal issues, and is to present its report within 60 days. This report must again be adopted by the DSB. The WTO provides detailed information about how a WTO dispute settlement procedure works.

If the losing party does not comply with the recommendations made by the panel / the Appellate Body and talks on compensation fail, the winning party can be authorised by the DSB to impose trade sanctions (e.g. U.S. countervailing duties in the banana and hormone dispute).

However, the Appellate Body became inquorate at the end of 2019, since it now has fewer than the three members required to take decisions. The appointment of a new member requires the consent of all WTO members, which is currently lacking. For this reason, none of the pending appeals can be processed at the moment.

In 2020, given the importance of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism for the rules-based trade order, the European Union agreed with (now) 25 other WTO members to create an interim arbitral second instance for trade disputes (the Multi-party interim appeal arbitration arrangement, MPIA). Even though the agreement only serves dispute settlement amongst those WTO members that have joined the arrangement, WTO law does open up the possibility to conclude such an agreement on the resolution of trade disputes on the basis of relevant WTO rules. All other WTO members can also join the arrangement.

In the case of disputes between states that have not joined the MPIA, the amended Enforcement Regulation (Regulation No. 654/2014, amended by Regulation 167/2021) allows countermeasures to be taken against violations by third countries even if a binding dispute settlement decision cannot be reached in the appellate instance. This ensures the EU’s ability to act in these cases too.

At the 12th Ministerial Conference in Geneva (12-17 June 2022), the 164 WTO member states agreed to restore a fully functioning dispute settlement system “by 2024”.

Intensive use is made of dispute settlement procedures, increasingly also by developing countries. Numerous special rules and relaxations apply to these countries, which can be viewed in detail on the WTO pages on rules for developing countries.

The Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) was established in 1989 during the Uruguay Round as the outcome of the midterm conference in Montreal and was permanently anchored as part of the world trade order in April 1994.

The TPRM is another key element of the WTO and aims to make national trade policies more transparent and understandable and to ensure that our complex trading system runs more smoothly. The TPRM aims at a cyclically neutral assessment of national trade policies, not the monitoring of specific obligations.

The trade policy review is undertaken by the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB), which is composed of all the WTO members.

Regular trade policy reviews

All the WTO members must subject themselves to a review by the TPRM at certain intervals. The frequency of the reviews depends on the WTO member’s share of world trade:

• the four WTO members with the greatest share of world trade (EU, U.S., Japan and China) every two years,
• the next 16 WTO members every four years, all other WTO members every six years.

Longer review intervals can be stipulated for the least developed countries.

Results

The impact of this instrument depends on the publication of key trade policy data of the reviewed WTO member – a report produced by the Trade Policy Review Division of the WTO Secretariat (the Secretariat Report) and a report by the relevant government – and on the discussion process triggered by this amongst the WTO members.

The practical benefit of the TPRM goes beyond transparency about trade policy. For example, developing countries, and LDCs in particular, can benefit not least from the fact that thanks to the TPRM

• a process of self-evaluation of its trade policy is launched,
• cooperation between international organisations (International Monetary Fund, World Bank, WTO) and economic policy coherence is promoted,
• reforms are initiated and an opportunity to present them is offered,
• trust is thus created amongst foreign investors and trading partners, andreflection on participation in the multilateral process is triggered.

The procedure and the rules of the TPRM themselves are subject to regular review by the TPRB with a view to making the trade policy reviews more standardised, more efficient and thus cheaper.

Trade and development

Germany and the EU believe that an essential element of a new round of further trade liberalisation must be a better integration of the developing countries into the world trade order. There are various possibilities for this:

Preferential market access for developing countries

Improved market access for developing countries and their further integration into the multilateral trading system is particularly important. Through the instrument of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), the EU grants developing countries unilateral preferential access to its particularly attractive market. Through its internationally pioneering EBA (everything but arms) instrument, the EU has for quite some time offered the least developed countries tariff exemptions for all products originating in the LDCs except for arms and ammunition. The further-reaching EU initiative – that all industrialised countries and the advanced developing countries in line with their capacity should offer the LDCs a prospect of tariff-free market access for essentially all products – resulted, following many years of vigorous advocacy by the EU and Germany in the interest of the LDCs, in the adoption of ministerial declarations on measures in the interest of LDCs at the 7th Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in 2005, and the 9th Ministerial Conference in Bali. The EU’s initiative will result in freedom from tariffs for LDC products, including in the agricultural sector, apart from a few especially sensitive products.

Technical assistance

On application, the WTO grants the developing countries technical assistance with the implementation of the WTO agreements and with capacity building in the form of:

• seminars and workshops at regional, national and sub-regional level;
  
  
• support for individual countries with legislation and notification in certain fields of trade;
  
  
• information about the WTO’s current programme of work;
  
  
• cooperation in electronic form to promote an understanding of the WTO.

Besondere Aufmerksamkeit wird dabei den am wenigsten entwickelten Ländern geschenkt. Beim Programm zur technischen Unterstützung handelsbezogener Aspekte mehrerer internationaler Organisationen beteiligen sich der Internationale Währungsfonds (IWF), das International Trade Centre (ITC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Bank and the WTO. The specific measures are surveyed and elaborated by the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD).

Financing is provided via voluntary contributions by the member states in a global fund supplementing the WTO budget (DDAGTF). From 2002 until 2012, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development paid €10.25 million of its budget to the DDAGTF. Part of this amount was spent to finance Trade Policy Reviews (TPRs) of the least developed countries. Germany is the third largest contributor to the WTO budget and as such continues to co-finance the WTO’s technical assistance.

Further to this, Germany provides around €2 million in voluntary hypothecated contributions each year to the ITC trust fund, helping to finance the work of the International Trade Centre (ITC: a joint agency of the WTO and UNCTAD based in Geneva). As an agency of technical assistance, the ITC is tasked in the field of trade with contributing to the integration of the developing countries into the world economy, especially via cooperation with the private sector and its organisations.

Other measures

As decided by several WTO members on the margins of the 3rd Ministerial Conference in Seattle in 1999, an Advisory Centre on WTO Law was set up to help developing countries make the best possible use of the
WTO dispute settlement system.

Trade and environment

Trade and environmental policy should complement each other in the interest of sustainable development. Like the European Union, Germany aims to increase the level of integration of environmental interests into the global trading system, particularly in the context of a new WTO round.

These efforts were given a boost at the end of the Uruguay Round by the inclusion of environmental policy goals in the WTO (preamble) and the establishment of a Committee on Trade and Environment with a wide-ranging programme of work.

Following intensive talks, and in order to improve coherence between trade and the environment, the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha in 2001 adopted a mandate for negotiations in the environmental sector, covering the following issues:

• Relationship between obligations from multilateral environmental agreements and WTO rules
  
  
• Exchange of information between multilateral environmental agreements and corresponding WTO bodies and the granting of observer status to the secretariats of multilateral environmental agreements
  
  
• Reductions in trade barriers for environmental goods and services
  
  

Since no multilateral agreement on this appears possible at present, the EU and 13 other WTO members have launched a plurilateral initiative to liberalise environmental goods (EGA) with a view to subsequent multilateralisation.

Further to this, plurilateral talks are taking place e.g. on the avoidance of plastic waste, on the reduction of subsidies for fossil fuels, and on autonomous environmental measures by WTO members.

Also, negotiations in other areas reflect the increased significance of the sustainability principle in the WTO. These include the planned agreement on the reduction of harmful fisheries subsidies. A significant partial agreement was reached on this at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva in June 2022. The discussions are continuing, not least in order to include other forms of harmful subsidies, especially with a view to those which foster overfishing and overcapacities in the fisheries sector.