The purpose of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is to help trade flow smoothly in a system based on rules; to settle trade disputes between nations; and to organise trade negotiations.

ICT focus:

The WTO's Agreement on Telecommunications Services is a voluntary agreement under which member-countries make commitments to the restructuring, in particular the liberalisation, of their communications sectors. The Agreement includes a Reference Paper on Regulation which sets a de facto international standard of basic principles for independent regulation.

Programme activities:

Information Technologies for Development: The WTO and World Bank are implementing a project which uses information technologies to improve decision-makers' capacity to understand and make use of the rules and mechanisms of the international trading system as embodied by the WTO.

http://www.wto.org/