- Trade topics
- Trade policy
The main objective of the WTO is to expand trade as a means of raising living standards, creating employment, and promoting sustainable development for all its members. It provides a global forum for its members to negotiate, apply and enforce trade rules with a view to progressively reducing tariffs and other barriers to trade, and eliminating discriminatory treatment.
The WTO was established on 1 January 1995 and celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2025. It is founded on principles established by its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 1947. Since its founding, the WTO has expanded its membership substantially. WTO members account for 98% of global trade. Its expansion underlines the importance of multilateralism in trade relations, in an increasingly challenging economic and political environment.
The WTO is at the core of the multilateral trading system. It is the main focus of the EU's multilateral trade policy. WTO rules provide the basis for the EU's trade relationships. Other EU trade arrangements such as free trade agreements (FTAs) build on and comply with the WTO's rules. Some 55% of EU trade takes place on WTO terms.
The WTO's main functions are:
- to provide a forum for negotiating and setting legal rules for international trade;
- resolving trade disputes (Dispute Settlement), and;
- Monitoring members' trade policy through the Trade Policy Review Mechanism.
The EU's objectives
For the past few decades, the multilateral trading system - based on WTO rules - has provided a basic framework for global trade to function as a key driver of prosperity and poverty reduction worldwide. However, in the past decade, the WTO's effectiveness across its key functions has been eroded.
At a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty and economic fragmentation, global trade cooperation - with the WTO at its core - matters more than ever to provide predictability and stability.
As reflected in the EU's political guidelines for the Commission's mandate, the EU's key objective is to sustain and improve rules-based trade through a reformed and strengthened WTO.
The EU's other goals in the WTO are to:
- keep the world’s trading system fair, predictable and based on a set of common rules;
- modernise the WTO and make it fit for purpose to ensure that European trade in goods and services - and investment - can continue to benefit from it;
- support the integration of developing countries - notably, least-developed countries (LDCs) - into the global economy, and;
- restore a fully functioning dispute settlement system.
The EU and WTO reform
The EU has put forward several ideas to modernise the WTO and to develop world trade rules that are fit to face modern challenges.
In addition to essential work to restore the WTO's dispute settlement system and to agree upon new rulemaking, the EU's proposals relate to three key thematic challenges:
- trade policy and state intervention in support of industrial sectors;
- trade and global environmental challenges, and;
- trade and inclusiveness.
In June 2025, the General Council chair appointed a facilitator for WTO reform to identify the key elements of a comprehensive WTO reform process in view of presenting options for ministerial guidance at the next WTO Ministerial Conference (MC14), which takes place in Cameroon in March 2026. .
The EU in WTO institutions
The WTO's highest decision-making body is the Ministerial Conference. The EU's commissioner for trade and economic security represents the EU in this forum.
The European Commission also represents the EU in:
- the General Council of the WTO, which acts on behalf of the Ministerial Conference and meets regularly, and;
- subsidiary WTO bodies, which manage the implementation of rules for specific areas of world trade, such as on trade in goods and services, and monitor how they are applied.
WTO members convene daily in a variety of settings at formal, informal or technical levels to address the day-to-day operation of trade-related topics involving goods and services, along with trade policy reviews and dispute settlement.
The EU's decision-making on WTO matters
The Commission represents the EU at the WTO. EU Member States in the Council grant the Commission permission to negotiate on behalf of the EU.
The Commission coordinates the EU's negotiating positions with EU Member States by consulting with the Council's trade policy committee. The Commission initiates and handles WTO disputes with the Council's support and may propose retaliatory measures.
The Commission regularly informs the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade (INTA) of WTO issues.
When an agreement is negotiated at the WTO, the Commission needs formal authorisation from the Council to sign and conclude it on behalf of the EU - with the consent of the European Parliament. The Commission also regularly engages with external stakeholders in Civil Society Dialogues on developments related to WTO policy.
Latest outcomes at the WTO
Results of the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference
The latest WTO Ministerial Conference (MC13) took place from 26 February-2 March 2024 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The conference concluded with the adoption of the MC13 Ministerial Declaration and a limited set of outcomes. In the Declaration, WTO Members reiterated their commitment to work towards necessary reform of the WTO to improve all its functions. They also agreed to preserve and strengthen the ability of the multilateral trading system, with the WTO at its core, to provide meaningful impetus to respond to current trade challenges.
More information on MC13 outcomes
Results of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference
The 12th WTO Ministerial Conference took place in June 2022 in Geneva. The package agreed upon includes Ministerial Decisions on an agreement on fisheries subsidies, the WTO's response to the Covid-19 pandemic and preparedness for future pandemics, an e-commerce work programme and moratorium, an emergency response to food insecurity, and a World Food Programme food purchases exemption from export prohibitions or restrictions.
More information on MC12 outcomes
