Permanent Representative of Australia to the World Trade Organization 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 of an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and continues Australia's representation to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT; 1948–1995), as a charter member joining the WTO to replace the GATT on 1 January 1995. The Permanent Mission to
Labour standards in the World Trade Organization any major decisions are made, meaning each country effectively carries the power of veto, sometimes making it difficult to achieve real progress. Secondly, this issue occurs at the intersection between trade and human rights which raises a series of unique questions. Although the trade and human rights regimes developed alongside each other following WWII, in some ways they are very different. This is because human rights law, unlike other types of international law that are more contractual in nature, governs how states treat their own citizens. Since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, sovereignty has been a key principle of