SSC
The headquarters of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is located in:
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Answer: Option B — Geneva, Switzerland
Detailed Solution
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has its headquarters at the Centre William Rappard in Geneva, Switzerland.
About the WTO:
- It was established on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed in April 1994 at the end of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations (1986-1994).
- It replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which had governed world trade since 1948.
- It is the only global international organisation dealing with the rules of trade between nations.
It has 166 members (after Comoros and Timor-Leste joined in 2024). India is a founding member.
Its main aims are to make trade flow as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible, by negotiating trade agreements and settling trade disputes.
Its main bodies:
Ministerial Conference: the highest decision-making body; it meets usually every two years. The 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) was held in Abu Dhabi in 2024.
General Council, which also meets as the Dispute Settlement Body and the Trade Policy Review Body.
The Appellate Body, which heard appeals in trade disputes, has not functioned since December 2019, because the USA blocked the appointment of new members.
Its decisions are usually taken by consensus.
Its Director-General is Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria, the first woman and the first African to hold the post (since 2021; reappointed for a second term from 2025).
Important WTO agreements:
- Agreement on Agriculture (AoA): covers market access, domestic support (amber, blue and green boxes) and export subsidies.
- TRIPS: Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
- TRIMS: Trade-Related Investment Measures.
- GATS: General Agreement on Trade in Services.
- Trade Facilitation Agreement (2017).
Other international organisations in Geneva:
World Health Organization (WHO), International Labour Organization (ILO), UN Human Rights Council, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Why not the other options?
- ✗New York has the headquarters of the United Nations.
- ✗Paris has the headquarters of UNESCO and the OECD.
- ✗Washington DC has the headquarters of the World Bank and the IMF.
Quick tip
Remember: WTO = Geneva (1 January 1995; replaced GATT of 1948; Marrakesh Agreement; 166 members; DG Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala); World Bank and IMF = Washington DC; UNESCO = Paris.
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International Economic Organisations — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of International Economic Organisations, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers international economic and financial organisations: the IMF, the World Bank group, the WTO, the Asian Development Bank, the New Development Bank, the AIIB, OPEC, the OECD and groupings such as the G20, along with their headquarters, founding and functions. Questions usually ask where an organisation is headquartered, when it was set up, and what it does. For example, the IMF and World Bank were created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, the WTO replaced GATT in 1995, and the New Development Bank, set up by the BRICS countries, is headquartered in Shanghai. Practise the international economic organisations questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.