Permanent Representative of Australia to the World Trade Organization the WTO is based with the Australian Permanent Mission and Consulate-General in Geneva. Prior to 1983, the role of Australia's representative on the GATT was filled by the Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations Office in Geneva. Permanent Representative of Australia to the World Trade Organization The Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the World Trade Organization is an officer of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the head of the Permanent Mission of the Commonwealth of Australia to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland. The position has the rank and status
History of the World Trade Organization that the WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round (1986–1994). The World Trade Organization's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), was established after World War II in the wake of other new multilateral institutions dedicated to international economic cooperation – notably the Bretton Woods institutions known as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. A comparable international institution for trade, named the International Trade Organization was successfully negotiated. The ITO was to be a United Nations specialized agency and would address not only trade barriers but other issues indirectly related