World Trade Organization

Provisions to establish the WTO were reached in the Uruguay Round of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO is scheduled to be
established no later than 1997 as an international organization of
comparable stature to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The Organization is expected to facilitate implementation of trade
agreements reached in the Uruguay Round by bringing them under one
institutional umbrella, requiring full participation of all countries in
one new trading system, and providing a permanent forum to discuss new
issues facing the international trading system. The WTO system will be
available only to countries which: (a) are contracting parties to the
GATT, (b) agree to adhere to all of the Uruguay Round agreements, and (c)
submit schedules of market access commitments for industrial goods,
agricultural goods, and services.