A trade pact is a wide ranging tax, tariff and trade pact that usually also includes investment guarantees. It is necessarily a very politically contentious agreement, as it affects many prior economic customs and status relations and increases trade bloc interdependence. It usually seeks efficiency by "free trade". The anti-globalization movement opposes such agreements almost by definition, but some groups normally allied within that movement, e.g. Green Parties, seek fair trade or safe trade provisions that moderate what they see as ill effects of globalization.
Most of the WTO agreements are the result of the 198694 Uruguay Round negotiations, signed at the Marrakesh ministerial meeting in April 1994.
Foremost is the Agreement Establishing the WTO (or the WTO Agreement), which serves as an umbrella agreement.
Annexed are the agreements on goods, services and intellectual property, dispute settlement, trade policy review mechanism and the plurilateral agreements.
International trade is also a branch of economics, which, together with international finance, forms the larger branch of international economics.
Traditionally trade was regulated through bilateral treaties between two nations.
The regulation of international trade is done through the World Trade Organization at the global level, and through several other regional arrangements such as MERCOSUR in South America, NAFTA between the United States, Canada and Mexico, and the European Union between 25 independent states.
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