At a meeting on e-commerce negotiations held on 20 May, co-convenor Ambassador George Mina (Australia) urged WTO members to move the work of the small groups to a phase of “stronger and more intensified convergence”. He said that the time left between now and the 12th Ministerial Conference is (...)
WTO members exchanged views with public and private sector experts on the growing challenges and opportunities facing businesses in the use of trade preferences, with a particular focus on product origin requirements. The discussion took place at a webinar entitled “What Drives the Utilization (...)
The third review of the trade policies and practices of the Kyrgyz Republic takes place on 18 and 20 May 2021. The basis for the review is a report by the WTO Secretariat and a report by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Speaking at a meeting of the Working Group on Trade, Debt and Finance on 17 May, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala encouraged WTO members to build on their discussions to develop a trade finance work programme in the run-up to the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12). She emphasized the (...)
A total of 26 government officials from 16 WTO members and observers are attending the WTO’s first online Regional Trade Policy Course for English-speaking African countries taking place from 17 May to 20 August. The objective is to extend participants’ expertise on the multilateral trading (...)
Effective lifelong learning and quality education for all is essential for a better future of work. If teachers, trainers and support workers are to fulfil this ambition they will need to master new technologies and learning techniques and receive support to deal with their expanded (...)
A panel of leading experts from government, industry, civil society, academia and intergovernmental organizations will explore the different perspectives on access to medical technologies over the past 25 years at a webinar on 19 May 2021. The event forms part of a series of events to mark the (...)
The government of Bolivia has formally notified the WTO of the country’s need to import COVID-19 vaccines, taking another step towards using flexibilities in WTO intellectual property rules as part of its pandemic response.
At a negotiating meeting of the structured discussions on investment facilitation for development on 11-12 May, participating members made good progress, with a view to achieving a concrete outcome at the 12th Ministerial Conference at the end of the year. Delegations addressed a number of (...)
The chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, introduced on 11 May a new draft text aimed at bringing members closer to agreement ahead of the 15 July meeting of ministers. The text is based on members’ collective work and proposes landing zones to (...)