
WTO iLibrary is the comprehensive global search, discovery and dissemination platform for digital content created by the World Trade Organization (WTO). It provides librarians, lawyers, trade specialists, academics and policy makers with a single digital destination for accessing publications, dispute settlement reports, trade data and working papers published by the WTO.
Content is organized by series title, publication year and alphabetically; and discovery of complete publications or even their components - chapters and articles - is a click away. The content is accessible in different formats - PDF and READ - to meet users' needs, whether for reading on a mobile device, sharing with peers via social network or integrating content into a report.
The WTO iLibrary contains 1,840 ebook titles, 14,470 chapters, 320 working papers, over 850 reports and now includes 25 databases. A number of the publications appear in English, French and Spanish, the official languages of the WTO. Every year around 70 new titles are planned to be added to the collection in addition to the backlist titles that are being converted into digital format.
The WTO has launched a new WTO data portal, which allows users to navigate a wide range of WTO databases covering trade in goods, services, dispute settlement, environmental measures, trade-related intellectual property rights and more. The new Stats Dashboard provides a visual tool that provides graphical representations of data on merchandise trade, trade in commercial services and market access.
Key Publications, Series and Databases Available
The WTO Agreements
The Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization and its Annexes: This publication contains the text of the WTO's founding agreement, the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement, including all amendments and additions since its entry into force until September 2017. These include amendments to the TRIPS Agreement, the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the amended Government Procurement Agreement. This publication updates and replaces The Legal Texts: The Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, which was first published in 1994.
The WTO Analytical Index
The WTO Analytical Index provides a comprehensive guide to the interpretation and application of the WTO agreements by the Appellate Body, dispute settlement panels and other WTO bodies. It contains extracts of key pronouncements and findings from tens of thousands of pages of WTO jurisprudence, including panel reports, Appellate Body reports, arbitral decisions and awards, and decisions of WTO committees, councils and other WTO bodies. The Analytical Index is updated twice a year and the WTO iLibrary provides the user with the most up-to-date information currently available on the market.
Dispute Settlement Reports
WTO provides the user access to every dispute panel report, Appellate Body report and arbitration report issued since the WTO was established in 1995. The iLibrary's enriched metadata makes it easy to search through over 400 reports by topic, year or title.
International Trade Statistical Database
The site provides you with the latest data on global trade in a searchable database on international trade in merchandise and commercial services. The data are presented according to the product definitions and regional groupings specified in the technical notes. The data is available in CSV format. The Tariff Profiles provide information on the market access situation of members, observers and other selected economies. The Country Comparisons data is presented for each economy with disaggregation by sector and duty ranges. Summary tables facilitate cross-country comparisons. The tariff statistics include calculated Ad-valorem equivalents for non-Ad-valorem duties. The information is also now available visually, through the WTO Stats Dashboard.
Trade Policy Reviews
The WTO's Trade Policy Reviews analyse the trade policies and practices of every Member country. They provide unique insights into the trading opportunities provides by the WTO's 164 members countries. These formatted publications, with key findings round-up, are only available on iLibrary.
WTO Publications
The site provides access to all of WTO's key publications such as the Annual Report and World Trade Report in both PDF and HTML format, which is only available on iLibrary, and allows users to download key sections of the Report, including charts and tables. iLibrary provides access to all of the WTO's Working Paper series, combined with iLibrary's enriched metadata makes the content of these papers fully searchable.
WTO Co-publications
A full-range the WTO's co-publications are also available, including those done with Cambridge University Press. The CUP Handbook series are designed to offer readers an overview of agreements and/or procedures followed by the organization. The site includes the new 2nd edition of the Handbook on the WTO Dispute Settlement System along with 17 other Handbooks covering other subjects such as; the TRIPS Agreement, Anti-Dumping Investigations and Accession to the WTO.
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WTO iLibrary Resources
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iLibrary Functionality
- Most content in PDF format, more recent content also in ePub, READ and HTML
- Latest trade data available in CSV format
- WTO publications will eventually be available in English, French and Spanish
- Provided bibliographic records in MARC21 and XML
- Citation and sharing tools
- Enriched metadata makes the content fully searchable
- Usage monitoring with COUNTER-compliant usage statistics
- Content can be viewed by country, topic, language, year and title
- Perpetual access to subscribed content
- All content can be fully downloaded or copied/pasted for use elsewhere
- Institution-wide access via IP address and/or username/password login
- Alerts for new content
Now Available on the WTO iLibrary
One Year of War in Ukraine
Assessing the Impact on Global Trade and DevelopmentThis note examines how the war in Ukraine has affected global trade. It looks at how exports from Russia and Ukraine have evolved over the past year. It then analyses how countries highly dependent on Russian or Ukrainian exports of agricultural and primary goods have responded to the crisis, and how prices and trade in goods greatly affected by the war have developed.
These impacts reveal the repercussions of the war for developing economies and demonstrate the resilience of the multilateral trading system. This note highlights that a widespread push to reconsolidate global supply chains based on geopolitical considerations would come at a high cost. Reduced growth prospects could be particularly large for many developing countries, especially least-developed countries. Their opportunity costs of foregoing further multilateral liberalization and moving to geopolitical rivalry instead could amount to 11.3 per cent of real GDP - placing further strain on the fragile situation triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Trade Therapy
Deepening Cooperation to Strength Pandemic DefencesThe COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has exposed the upsides and downsides of international trade in medical goods and services. Open trade can increase access to medical services and goods - and the critical inputs needed to manufacture them - improve quality and variety, and reduce costs.
However, excessive concentration of production, restrictive trade policies, supply chain disruptions, and regulatory divergence can jeopardize the ability of public health systems to respond to pandemics and other health crises. Trade Therapy: Deepening Cooperation to Strengthen Pandemic Defenses, coordinated by Nadia Rocha and Michele Ruta at the World Bank and Marc Bacchetta and Joscelyn Magdeleine at the World Trade Organization, provides new data on trade in medical goods and services and medical value chains, surveys the evolving policy landscape before and during the pandemic, and proposes an action plan to improve trade policies and deepen international cooperation to deal with future pandemics. As the COVID-19 pandemic lingers, the focus of policy action is on the response, which includes actions aimed at removing bottlenecks and providing government support to promote equitable access to vaccines. As the emergency subsides, the focus should shift to prevention and preparedness. Steps to close information gaps - building on the Multilateral Leaders Task Force on COVID-19, the ACT - Accelerator, and the open markets, for example - by negotiating tariff reductions on medical goods and greater market access in services should take priority. Also important are measures to improve the efficiency of markets, which include harmonizing regulation through mutual recognition or equivalence of standards and creating international standards for essential medical goods, inputs, and production processes. Agreement on a crisis rulebook to be deployed during an emergency—including clear and agreed limits on export policy flexibility and shared rules on intellectual property flexibilities - would provide a more solid policy foundation to address future challenges.
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World Trade Report 2022Climate change is having a profound impact on people's lives across the world. Mitigating and adapting to climate change will require major economic investment and coordinated action to transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy. The World Trade Report 2022 explores the complex interlinkages between climate change, international trade, and climate and trade policies.
Although international trade generates greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to climate-related natural disasters, it can also play an essential role in helping countries reduce emissions by increasing the availability and affordability of environmental goods, services and technologies. International trade can also play a key role in helping countries adapt to the impacts of climate change and build future resilience. The World Trade Report 2022 shows how international trade and trade rules can contribute to addressing climate change. Ensuring trade and climate change policies are mutually supportive requires global coordination and transparency about government measures. The WTO already plays an important role in helping countries tackle climate change by maintaining a predictable trading environment underpinned by WTO rules that allow for international trade in critical goods and services needed to cope with the consequences of climate change and to reduce emissions. Further international cooperation at the WTO could strengthen the mutual supportiveness of trade and climate change policies so that the world is better equipped to transition to a low-carbon economy.
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World Trade Statistical Review 2022"World Trade Statistical Review" looks into the latest trends in global trade, with in-depth analysis of what is being traded and who the key players are. Analytical chapters are complemented by over 65 tables providing a detailed breakdown of the goods and services being traded and the leading exporters/importers.
WCO/WTO Study Report on Disruptive TechnologiesSo-called disruptive technologies, such as blockchain, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and machine learning, have the potential to transform border management and the conduct of international trade. This publication explores how these advanced technologies can be used to improve the efficiency of Customs processes and to ease the flow of goods across borders.
Subsidies, Trade and International CooperationDealing constructively with subsidies in global commerce is central to G20 leaders' goal of reforming and strengthening the multilateral trading system. The growing use of distortive subsidies alters trade and investment flows, detracts from the value of tariff bindings and other market access commitments, and undercuts public support for open trade.
This publication finds that governments need to cooperate more on subsidies. It seeks to highlight the potential benefits of closer cooperation and considers some areas where this might be pursued constructively.
The publication looks at existing forms of cooperation, including the legal obligations governments have undertaken in the WTO and various regional agreements. It also explores additional actions that could help to address concerns. Better information, more extensive objective analysis and regular dialogue can help governments accelerate reform of their own subsidies and expedite negotiations toward improved international disciplines.
High-quality economic analysis is needed to understand not only how well current subsidy programs meet domestic policy objectives, and at what cost, but also how they spill over onto international markets and how they interact with international policy goals, like climate mitigation. Improved transparency and analysis, more robust inter-governmental consultation and strengthened international rules can be expected to reduce the use of harmful subsidies and to improve their design.
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World Trade Report 2022The WTO Annual Report 2022 provides a comprehensive account of the WTO's activities in 2021 and early 2022. It also covers the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12), originally scheduled for end-2021 but postponed until June 2022.
The Report opens with a message from Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who looks back at the successful conclusion of MC12, the role of the WTO in addressing COVID-19 and the challenges facing world trade. This is followed by an overview of the WTO's activities in 2021 and early 2022, a snapshot of MC12 and in-depth accounts of the WTO's main areas of activity.
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WTO Trade Profiles 2022Trade Profiles 2022 provides key data on merchandise trade and trade in commercial services for 197 economies. Each profile displays a sectoral breakdown of the economy's exports and imports, its main trading partners and its most traded products and services.
For merchandise trade, top exports and imports are listed for both agricultural and non-agricultural products. For trade in services, data is provided for transport, travel and other commercial services. Foreign affiliate statistics (FATS) and statistics on intellectual property are also provided.
The profiles are available for all WTO members and observers and for other selected economies. With each profile presented in a handy two-page format, the publication provides a concise overview of global trade.
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WTO Tariff Profiles 2022World Tariff Profiles 2022 provides comprehensive information on the tariffs and non-tariff measures imposed by over 170 countries and customs territories. It is a joint publication of the WTO, the International Trade Centre and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Summary tables at the start of the publication provide cross-country comparisons of the average "bound" or maximum tariff each economy may apply to imports from other WTO members and the average tariffs it applies in practice. Data is provided for the category of "all products" as well as for agricultural and non-agricultural products. Import and export profiles provide cross-country comparisons on the value of imports, export diversification, and relevant tariff data.
One-page profiles in Part 2 of the report provide more detailed data for each economy, with tariffs broken down by product groups. Each profile also shows the economy's main trading partners and the tariffs levied on their exports by these markets.
Statistics on non-tariff measures (NTMs), such as anti-dumping measures, countervailing measures and safeguards, complement the data on tariffs.
This edition also includes two special topics: preferential rules of origin in international trade; and the use of NTMs on "green" and "brown" energy products.
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