The creation of the World Trade Organization and the establishment of an advocacy regime

Interest group research is a nascent domain in the literature on the World Trade Organization (WTO). This article seeks to explore the development and the current status of the WTO's advocacy regime. It reviews the role of interest groups in the history of the multilateral trading regime and explores the mechanisms of interest representation at the WTO. The paper shows that the design of the WTO's advocacy regime goes back to international efforts for a new governance of global economy after World War II. It is presented that the system is not static but subject to frequent changes, and it is contended that the recently implemented access badges mechanism is one important step toward a conventional lobbying regime as known from the nation states. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.