WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.

The WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), was established after World War II in the wake of other new multilateral institutions dedicated to international economic cooperation, notably the Bretton Woods Institution known as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. A comparable international institution
• Is leading to the impoverishment of Third World countries whose economics are exploited by the rich countries of the world because free trade allows rich countries to force down prices of goods made in the Third World, while allowing their own technology-rich products to go up in price. • Give s ownership of the rules of the world trading system to a few rich countries and their multinational companies and strips power from poor countries and their citizens.

EUROPEAN UNION
The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 upon the foundations of the European Communities.

The First step on the road to today’s EU was the formation in 1952 of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) by France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. This created a free trade area for coal and steel, at the time crucial industries in those countries.
In 1957, the European Atomic Energy Community was formed by the same six countries to encourage the growth of the peaceful use of nuclear power. In 1958, the European Economic Community (EEC) or Common Market came into existence after the signing of the Treaty of Rome. The next stage of deepening the customs union occurred in 1985 with the signing of the Single European Act which came into force on 1 January