Although geographical indications (GI) occupy a small niche in world trade they raise important issues in the theory of international trade such as the overall validity of the principle of comparative advantage. In a dynamic context, where basic food products are increasingly being produced through international production chains thereby raising food safety concerns and where luxury food products are appealling to wider segments of the populations everywhere, the place of GIs in world trade is set to become more prominent. On the other hand, international trade considerations are paramount from a GI perspective. For one thing, most of the disagreements on GIs take place in the international domain. Not that there are no disagreements within respective national environments but nations usually possess institutional mechanisms that can, in principle, be activated to deal with them. The situation is not so clear internationally and this chapter will look at how the World Trade Organization (WTO) has handled them so far. In addition to the controversies and disputes surrounding GIs we will also look at the connection between them and development policies in developing countries, especially the use of GIs in development strategies that seek to generate export revenues through the exploitation of their ‘hidden’ treasures.