World Trade Organization

Established in 1994 following the Uruguay Round, The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the result of multilateral trade negotiations; it seeks to promote and intensify commercial activities between its members. The rules to which the States agreed represent their declared effort to support an international trading system created through free markets policies. In the same year, The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was adopted and added to the GATT 1947 provisions. Through GATT, the WTO established the most-favored-nation treatment stating that upon signing the agreement, member States must apply to the signing parties, without delay or under any conditions, the same circumstances that they already offered to suppliers from other countries. The main document regulates areas such as agriculture, rules of origin, subsidies and countervailing measures, safeguards and customs valuation; the additional protocols include agreements on trade services and information technology. Among the provisions which regulate drug commercialization and thus impact access to medication and treatments is the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).