TRADE

World Trade Organization Set to Go: The United States, Canada and the European Union handed over their formal ratifications of a landmark global trade pact in a final rush to become founding members of the new World Trade Organization. About 85 countries have now officially signed up with the organization, which starting Jan. 1 will oversee international commerce and remove barriers to exports. The WTO one provision of a mammoth 22,000-page trade agreement thrashed out in eight years of tough negotiations under the auspices of the 125-nation General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. It cuts import duties on hundreds of thousands of products and opens up trade in services such as banking and tourism.