World Trade Organization

At the center of the present multilateral trading system is the World Trade Organization (WTO), an international organization established in 1995 as the successor to the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO was established as the result of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations (1986-1994), which resulted in numerous agreements on trade in goods, services, investment and other non-tariff barriers to trade. One of the Uruguay Round agreements was the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).