The Uruguay Round and the Birth of the WTO

The Uruguay Round, launched at Punta del Este in 1986, was the most ambitious trade negotiation in history. After nearly eight years of talks, ministers signed the Marrakesh Agreement in April 1994, creating the World Trade Organization, which began work on January 1, 1995. The deal extended trade rules to services through the General Agreement on Trade in Services and to intellectual property through the TRIPS agreement, began bringing agriculture and textiles under discipline, and created a binding dispute settlement system.

Rich countries gained stronger protection for patents and copyrights; developing countries gained the phase-out of textile quotas and some agricultural reforms. Critics argued that TRIPS raised the cost of medicines in poor countries, a concern partly addressed by the 2001 Doha Declaration on public health. The WTO operates by consensus, which gives every member a voice but makes new agreements hard to reach, as the stalled Doha Development Round showed.