Document symbols

The unique and most commonly referred to identifier of a WTO official document. The symbol is the counterpart of the call or shelf number that is used commonly in libraries to identify books and other loan items. Based on the WTO Document Nomenclature (or classification scheme), the symbol can be more or less complex according to the series in which the document is being issued, its subject or its type.

Each symbol is made up of a combination of letters, numbers and suffixes. Letters are used to identify collections, series, types and the status of documents while numbers are used to indicate sequential order. Three letter ISO standard codes are also used to identify Members (e.g. POL for Poland, ZWE for Zimbabwe, etc.). All documents are numbered in chronological order of issue and some documents may have more than one symbol - for example:


WT/ACC/SPEC/LVA/7/Add.2/Corr.1

 

Explanation:

The first corrigendum of the second addendum to the seventh document relating to Latvia issued in the WTO Accession special series (part of the World Trade Overseeing Bodies document collection).  

Examples:

G/L/71   GPA/SPEC/2/Rev.1
IP/C/W/15   OFFICE(00)/39
S/ENQ/9   WT/CTE/W/31

 

Find below the full list of acronyms that appear in WTO's document symbols and when they are used.

View here the full list of acronyms used in symbols