Overview
The UTP is an agreement detailing trade agreements between worlds and businesses belonging to the Core Commonwealth and Spinward Confederacy. While neither of the major empires is enthusiastic about its members doing business with the other, there is little short of armed incursion that can actually prevent it. 

History
Only a few generations after the Spinward Confederacy split from the Core Commonwealth, there had already been two instances of major hostility between them, the last verging on outright war. Many members of both empires complained that trade with traditionally friendly worlds was now cut off due to the "squabbling of giants". Both empires maintained a harsh stance that nothing good would come to any world that dealt with the enemy.

Zanya and Hadjel, traditional trade partners and both somewhat isolated from the rest of their respective empires, finally had enough of the big politics. Quietly and unostentatiously, they met and signed an extensive set of sweeping trade agreements and declarations of the rights of individual worlds within a democracy, simply titled "Open Trade By Fringe Worlds" and commonly called the "Fringe Trade Agreement". With many aghast worlds watching, shiploads of goods began to crawl back and forth through the black void. Both empires went through great posturing with their starfleets, attempting blockades against their own and enemy forces. Neither could ever bring themselves to open fire over trade.

Jezanne of the Spinward Confederacy would soon join the Fringe Trade Pact, adding its own specific clauses and sections to the agreement and making it that much harder for the empires to blockade. When the Sarisland government from the Menjur system joined, the name was changed to the Universal Trade Pact. When independent business elements from the Core stronghold of Tengadi, who held traditional trade ties to Jezanne, joined next, both empires begrudgingly gave up fighting it. Ultimately, it was good for the economy of both and the fielding of starfleets was prohibitively expensive. Other worlds soon followed.

Members
Members from the Core Commonwealth include Zanya, Menjur, and a variety of business elements from Tengadi.
Members from the Spinward Confederacy include Hadjel, Jorum, Jezanne, and a variety of business elements from Lorringil.
Currently lobbying to join are trade partners Stroud (weakly affiliated with the Core),  Centin (weakly affiliated with the Confederacy) and the independent planet of Ygnus.

Organization
The UTP is run by a large administrative force that rivals that of a small empire. The UTP was originally little more than a set of documents that declared that any two planets were capable of trading without political prejudice from without. As the number of participating worlds grew, so did disputes between members and with outside forces. It became necessary for a bureaucracy and administrative leadership to form and guide the independents in group proceedings. An electoral process formed, whereby local representation lead up to regional representation, and ultimately up to an elected panel composed of a Magistrate who would arbitrate matters of legal precedence, a President who would handle the administrative side of the UTP, and a Controller who would oversee the financial affairs and policies of the organization. The three positions were designed with overlapping authority so that the three would need to agree on the majority of UTP policy decisions and could not work arbitrarily or autonomously. The council resides in a luxuriously appointed suite of office buildings on Ennager.

The UTP bureaucracy maintains a mostly administrative organization and contracts out the majority of its security and equipment needs, almost exclusively to UTP members.