Essential International Trade and Economic Acronyms

International Trade and Economic Organizations

Major Trade Agreements and Partnerships

• TTIP: Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
• TPSEP: Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement
• CETA: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (Canadian-European Trade Agreement)
• CETA: Corporative Economic Trade Agreement
• DR-CAFTA: Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement
• NAFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement
• GATS: General Agreement on Trade in Services
• GATT: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
• OBOR: One Belt One Road

Global Financial and Development Institutions

• WTO: World Trade Organization
• ITO: International Trade Organization
• EIB: European Investment Bank
• BIB: Banco Internacional de Desarrollo
• UNDP: United Nations Development Programme
• ILO: International Labour Organization
• MIGA: Multilateral Investment and Guarantee Agency
• IBRD: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
• IDA: International Development Association
• IFC: International Finance Corporation
• OECD: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
• OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
• OEEC: Organisation for European Economic Co-operation
• FSB: Financial Stability Board
• BIS: Bank for International Settlements
• NDB: New Development Bank (5 members of the BRICS)
• AIIB: Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
• ADB: Asian Development Bank (Eradicate poverty, environmental security)
• Islamic Development Bank: Modernizing roads
• Central American Bank
• Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
• CAE: Financial institutions
• UNCTAD: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
• CoE: Council of Europe
• CECA or ECSC: European Coal and Steel Community
• EEA: European Economic Area
• International Bank

Regional Cooperation and Economic Blocs

• ASEAN: Asociación de Naciones del Sudeste Asiático
• Mercosur: Mercado Común del Sur
• APEC: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
• ACP: African, Caribbean, and Pacific

Economic Terms and Regulatory Frameworks

• ISDS: Investor-State Dispute Settlement
• ISDS: International Settlement Disputes
• IPR: Intellectual Property Rights
• SMEs: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
• MoF: Memorandum of Understanding
• ICT: Information and Communication Technology
• BPO: Business Process Outsourcing
• FDI: Foreign Direct Investment
• ODA: Official Development Assistance (Development Aid)
• MDG: Millennium Development Goals
• MDGs: Millennium Development Goals
• SDGs: Sustainable Development Goals
• VUCA: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity
• B2B: Business-to-Business (companies selling products to others)
• PPP: Purchasing Power Parity (China) / Public-Private Partnership
• LDCs: Least Developed Countries
• DAC: Development Assistance Committee
• ITU: International Telecommunication Union
• Flexisecurity