World Trade Organization: a long history

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The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was born in 1947, signed by 23 nations including Brazil, France, India, South Africa, the UK and US at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. GATT promoted international free trade and the elimination of trade barriers. Later, the Uruguay Round Agreements “GATT 1994” established the multilateral trading system, the WTO, in 1995. wto

The international trade organization, WTO, was created in 1995. Some of the WTO rules originated in GATT. While GATT primarily dealt with trade in goods, the WTO has expanded to include trade in services and intellectual property. Keystone / Str

Swiss Ambassador to the WTO Phillipe Rossier (right) and WTO Director-General Renato Ruggiero (left) show the agreement of the 8th round of multilateral trade negotiations “The Uruguay Round”, signed by Switzerland. The photo was taken on 1 June 1995 at the headquarters of the WTO in Geneva. Keystone / Patrick Aviolat

Cuban leader Fidel Castro (centre) chats with South African President Nelson Mandela (right) and Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi (left). 132 WTO members took part in the 2nd Ministerial Conference in Geneva in May 1998, which also commemorated the 50th anniversary of the multilateral trading system. Keystone / Donald Stampfli

China's delegation head, Long Yong Tu, reads the programme before the opening session in September 2001 of the WTO, which paved the way for China's entry into the WTO two months later at the Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar. Keystone / Fabrice Coffrini

About 40 farmers from Korea protest in front of the WTO headquarters in Geneva in July 2006. The Korean farmers were in Geneva to oppose what they said were the neo-liberal policies of the US and other capitalist nations, and to promote international solidarity of people from across the globe. Keystone / Martial Trezzini

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, looks at Oceana mascot "Finley the fish" at the WTO headquarters in Geneva in November 2007. The mascot was used to protest subsidies that lead to overfishing. Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi

Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma (left) and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim (right) speak during a press conference after a Ministerial meeting of the Group of 20 in Geneva in November 2009, one day before the start of the 7th Ministerial Conference. Keystone / Martial Trezzini

NGO activists drive tractors to protest against the WTO during the 7th Ministerial Conference in Geneva in December 2009. Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi

A WTO staff adds the Russian Federation name to the seats for the delegation members before the accession of the Russian Federation to the WTO at the 8th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Geneva in December 2011. While there have been some moves to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine and exclude Russia from some of the negotiations, Russia's membership status does not appear to top the agenda at this 12th Conference. Keystone / Martial Trezzini

Demonstrators protest against the 8th WTO Ministerial Conference in front of the International Conference Centre Geneva (CICG) in December 2011. Keystone / Martial Trezzini

Director-General of the WTO Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (right) and the chair of fisheries subsidies negotiations Ambassador Santiago Wills (left) met with representatives of the Stop Funding Overfishing Coalition in March this year. The draft agreement on fisheries subsidies will be discussed at the 12th Ministerial Conference in Geneva. Bryan Lehmann

Members of the aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) demonstrate outside the WTO in favour of a waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines and drugs ahead of the meeting on WTO's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) in Geneva in March 2021. The TRIPS issue is expected to be hotly debated at the forthcoming Ministerial Conference. Reuters / Denis Balibouse

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The 12^th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will take place from June 12-15. This will be the fourth time it will be held in Geneva. Here are some past highlights of previous Ministerial Conferences in Geneva.