date:Aug 15, 2013
the legal ground rules for international commerce. They are essentially contracts, binding governments to keep their trade policies within agreed limits. Although negotiated and signed by governments, the goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business, while allowing governments to meet social and environmental objectives.
The systems overriding purpose is to help trade flow as freely as possible so long as there are no undesirable side effect