• World Trade Organization


• International Monetary Fund


• World Bank


• Bank For International Settlement


• Group of Seven


• Europen Union


• North American Free Trade Agreement

At the heart of the WTO are the various agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. These agreements cover a range of topics:

• Reductions in tariffs;
• Fairer competition in agricultural trade;
• Textiles trade;
• Trade in services;
• Protection and enforcement of intellectual property;
• Issues related to anti-dumping, export subsidies, and safeguards; and
• Other non-tariff barriers.

The goal of the WTO is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business. The agreements have three main objectives:

• To help trade flow as freely as possible,
• To achieve further liberalization gradually through negotiation, and
• To set up an impartial means of settling disputes.

To learn more about the activities of the WTO.

Another organization, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was founded at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods in 1944. The IMF is an international organization of 183 member countries, established to:

• Promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability, and orderly exchange arrangements;
• Facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade,;
• Foster economic growth and high levels of employment; and
• Provide temporary financial assistance to countries to help ease balance of payments adjustment.

The purpose of the IMF has remained unchanged but its operations — which involve surveillance, financial assistance, and technical assistance — have developed to meet the changing needs of its member countries in an evolving world economy. Lean more about the IMF.

A related organization, the World Bank, was founded in 1944 with the primary focus of helping the poorest people and the poorest countries. Its mission is to fight poverty for lasting results and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity, and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors. Learn more about the World Bank.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland, is an international organization that fosters cooperation among central banks and other agencies in pursuit of monetary and financial stability.

The BIS functions as:

• A forum for international monetary and financial cooperation;
• A bank for central banks, providing a broad range of financial services;
• A center for monetary and economic research, contributing to a better understanding of international financial markets and the interaction of national monetary and financial policies; and
• An agent or trustee, facilitating the implementation of various international financial agreements.

The Basel Committee on International Banking Supervision, a committee of the BIS that consists of representatives of some of the world’s largest countries, meets to establish uniform financial and performance guidelines for commercial banks around the world. Learn more about the working of the BIS.

The Group of Seven, or G7, was created in 1975 with the objective of setting up a forum, at the highest decisional level and having formalities reduced to a minimum, in which to discuss important macroeconomic and monetary issues. The group was established with the intent of filling the gap created in the management of the monetary system following the breakdown of the Bretten Woods agreement in 1971.

The G-7 consists of the leaders of the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Great Britain, Canada, and Italy. The Birmingham Summit in 1998 marked Russia's official entry in the Group and the creation of the G8. Among other things the Group discusses:

• Economic issues
• Trade relations
• Foreign exchange markets

While economic issues still dominate the G8 meetings, discussions on environmental issues and arms control have been included in recent years. Learn more about G7/G8.

After nearly fifty years, and four waves of accessions, the EU today has fifteen Member States.

One of the main objectives of the EU is to promote economic and social progress. Towards this end, Member States established the single market in 1993 and the single currency was launched in 1999. The completion of the EU’s internal "single market" boosted intra-EU trade, which represents two-thirds of the total EU Member States’ trade.

Suppliers of goods, services and investment from outside the EU have benefited from the single market program, just as much as people and companies within the EU. The EU has been busy consolidating its single market. Traders at home and overseas can market their goods in the EU based on one set of rules. The single market experience may include valuable elements for the multilateral system of the future. Learn more about the European common market.

Many smaller "trade blocs" are developing all over the world, in North Africa, South East Asia, different parts of Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Over the last 50 years more than 100 regional economic agreements have been created.

A possible problem is that competing trade blocs will adopt protectionist policies and slow worldwide economic growth by restricting trade among groups of nations. However, rapid proliferation of trade blocs and free-trade zones has occurred because countries want the benefits of increased trade that accompany lower trade barriers.

The WTO has created a committee to study regional groups and to assess whether they are consistent with WTO rules. The committee is also examining how regional arrangements might affect the multilateral trading system, and what kind of relationship they might have.