Passage: After the Uruguay round, the GATT became the basis for the establishment of the World Trade Organization.  Because ratification of TRIPS is a compulsory requirement of World Trade Organization membership, any country seeking to obtain hard access to the numerous international markets opened by the World Trade Organization must enact the strict intellectual property laws mandated by TRIPS.  For this reason, TRIPS is the most important multilateral instrument for the globalization of intellectual property laws.  States like Russia and China, that were very unlikely to join the Berne Convention have found the prospect of WTO membership a powerful enticement.

Question: What must be ratified if a country wishes to join the WTO?
TRIPS