ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author describes the development and institutional regulation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and provides a summary of the material content of the new system. He explores the basic regulations—the general stipulations—that are found in all the separate WTO agreements. The author focuses on statements and provisions relating to environmental protection. The increasing profile of environmental and social protection permits the hypothesis to be advanced that environmental protection and social security will eventually have top priority in the world trade system. The author summarises the content of general agreement on tariffs and trade, general agreement on trade in services and trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights in general terms as a prelude to tackling the sub-sections on agriculture, sanitary and phytosanitary measures. He discusses the general rules that apply to all the multilateral agreements and considers those that apply to only one or another of the multilateral agreements and deals with the plurilateral agreements.
