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The site’s overall structure can be seen in the site map. It’s divided into areas (search, registration, how to contact the WTO, information about the organization, news, trade topics, resources, official documents, etc).

Usually, when you click on a link to go to one of these areas, you arrive at a gateway page which takes you either directly to the content of that area, or to the next-level gateway for a specific subject within that area (e.g. to “agriculture” within “trade topics”).

Navigation: several routes to same material   Back to top

Looking for the text of the Agriculture Agreement? You could go through “trade topics” > “agriculture” or through “resources” > “legal texts”. Whatever you find logical.

All the main links are at the top of the page (in the “banner” area). They are mainly self-explanatory, offering links to various areas of the site, alternative languages. Then, on the coloured bar — on the left-hand side — there are links to headings within the current page. Below the coloured bar, on the right-hand side, there are “footprints” (sometimes called “breadcrumbs”) to help you back-track towards the homepage.

For a group of pages that are related to each other, links from the page you are currently reading to the related pages, are in the left margin beside the text.

Note also:

• clicking on the WTO logo takes you back to the homepage
• if you’re unsure what “trade topics” or “resources”, etc includes, put your cursor over the link in the banner and text will appear with more details.

Where to go? ‘Trade topics’, ‘Resources’ ...  Back to top

The WTO: institutional information, introductions and explanations, membership, the Secretariat, job vacancies, technical cooperation, training.

Trade topics: issues covered specifically by the WTO’s councils, committees and agreements.
Eg: GATT and goods, tariffs, agriculture, textiles, food safety, technical regulations, antidumping, development, environment, etc.

Resources: analysis, data, publications, legal texts, official documents, various services offered.

... and official documents   Back to top

You could actually think of the WTO website as two sites. One contains the regular web pages; the other is the “Documents Online” database which contains all WTO official documents — searchable and downloadable in MS Word (older documents in WordPerfect).

The two areas are different in the way information is archived, searched and retrieved. That means they use separate search facilities, although we are examining ways to combine the two methods of searching.

Comments please   Back to top

Your comments are always useful. Please send an e-mail to feedback@wto.org