The World Trade Organization (WTO) replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1995. Compared to GATT, the WTO is much more powerful because of its institutional foundation and its dispute settlement system. Countries that do not abide by its trade rules are taken to court and can eventually face retaliation.

The GATT preamble (1947) states that "trade and economic endeavour should be conducted with a view to raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing volume of real income". These basic objectives were reinforced in the Marrakesh Agreement, which established the WTO. Historically, GATT enforced phased-in tariff reductions worldwide. Until the Uruguay Round, which ended in 1994, the trade negotiations focused on nonagricultural goods, mainly because the U.S. wanted to protect its farm sector. Over the years, as the corporate interests of the developed countries have expanded, these countries have also lobbied for more issues to be incorporated into the GATT/WTO. Its agenda now includes agriculture, services (financial, telecommunications, information technology, etc), intellectual property rights, electronic commerce, and, possibly in the next round, investment, government procurement, and competition policy.

Although purportedly a democratic institution, the WTO is dominated by the leading industrialized countries and by the corporations of these countries. The logic of commercial trade pervades the WTO. The development goals articulated when GATT was first formed have been put aside − or are wrongly assumed to be the natural consequence of increased trade. Developing countries have little power within the WTO.