Reviewed more often the bigger you trade: the mechanism in Annex 3 that watches trade policy

Background

A steady task of the world trade body is to watch what members actually do with their trade policies. The Trade Policy Review Mechanism sits at the centre of that work. All members are reviewed, and how often depends on each one's share of world trade. The reviews themselves are carried out by the Trade Policy Review Body of the organisation. The mandate for it is written into Annex 3 of the WTO Agreement itself. Each review rests on two reports, one from the government under review and one from the secretariat of the organisation. Minutes of the review meetings are put out about six weeks afterwards. The head of the organisation also reports regularly to that body on recent trade developments.