WORK WITH OTHER INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

The WTO and other organizations

The WTO works with a number of other international governmental organizations under the banner of “coherence”, a term originating in the “Decision on achieving greater coherence in global economic policy-making”, which ministers agreed in Marrakesh, April 1994. But coherence in global economic policy-making goes much beyond the WTO's formal and specific cooperation arrangements with the IMF and the World Bank. Indeed, it is now recognized that the WTO system is only one part of a much broader set of international rights and obligations that bind WTO Members. The WTO maintains extensive institutional relations with several other international organizations; there are some 140 international organisations that have observer status in WTO bodies. The WTO also participates as observer in the work of several international organizations. In all, the WTO Secretariat maintains working relations with almost 200 international organisations in activities ranging from statistics, research, standard-setting, and technical assistance and training. Although the extent of such cooperation varies, coordination and coherence between the work of the WTO and that of other international organizations continues to evolve so as to assist Members in the operation of their economic policies.

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Main partners
Collaboration with these IGOs is mandated in WTO legal texts:
Codex, FAO, ILO, IMF, ITC, ITU, OECD, OIEUN, UNCTAD, UNEP, WB, WCO, WHO, WIPO

See also:
> Official Web Locator for the UN System

VIDEOS 
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News 

  

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Background explanations 

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The mandate 

The desire of WTO member countries for greater coherence in global economic policy-making through closer cooperation between the WTO, World Bank and IMF is expressed in a number of Agreements, Ministerial Declarations and Decisions:

  

Organizations mentioned in WTO legal texts  back to top

Cooperation between these organizations and the WTO is specifically mandated in WTO agreements, ministerial declarations or decisions, or General Council decisions

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Other organizations 

The WTO also has working relations with many other organizations. Here, these are listed according to the Secretariat divisions that work with them.

  

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Cooperation, by subject 

Agriculture

  

Development

 

Environment

 

Food safety, animal and plant health (SPS)

  

Market access

  

Services

 

Technical barriers to trade and standards (TBT)

  

Trade facilitation

 

Trade Finance

  

Economic Research and Statistics

  

Intellectual property

  

Trade Policy Review

 

Government procurement

  

Training and technical cooperation

  

See also:

NGO gateway: participation of NGOs in WTO Ministerials and Public symposium, and documents submitted to WTO by NGOs.