The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that govern international trade in cooperation
with the United Nations System. The WTO is the world's largest international economic organization, with 164 member states representing over 98% of global trade and global GDP.
The economists Harry White (left) and John Maynard Keynes at the Bretton Woods Conference
The World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1998, in the Palace of Nations (Geneva, Switzerland)
The headquarters of the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland
Image: Peter Sutherland (1985)
International organization
An international organization, also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is an organization that is established by a treaty or other type of instrument governed by international law and possesses its own legal personality, such as the United Nations, the World Health Organization, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and NATO. International organizations are composed of primarily member states, but may also include other entities, such as other international organizations, firms, and nongovernmental organizations. Additionally, entities may hold observer status. An alternative definition is that an international organization is a stable set of norms and rules meant to govern the behavior of states and other actors in the international system.
The offices of the United Nations in Geneva (Switzerland), which is the city that hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world