Speaking at a special session of the 16th Annual Conference on WTO Law on 10 June in honour of Professor John Jackson and Ambassador Julio Lacarte Muró, Director-General Roberto Azevêdo paid tribute to both men for their profound contribution to the development of the multilateral trading system. (...)
WTO developing country members were urged on 9 June to start notifying their timeframes and needs for fully implementing the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), as entry into force of the TFA draws closer.
On 9 June 2016 Saudi Arabia, as President of the GCC and on behalf of the GCC Member States: Kingdom of Bahrain, the State of Kuwait, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, notified the WTO’s Committee on Safeguards that it initiated on 9 (...)
Seychelles has become the latest country to accept the 2005 protocol amending the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Ms Cillia Mangroo, Director-General of the Trade Division at Seychelles’ Ministry of Finance, Trade and the Blue Economy, presented (...)
Online registration for the 2016 Public Forum is now open on the WTO website: www.wto.org/pf16. The Forum will be held at the WTO’s headquarters in Geneva from 27 to 29 September. Under the theme “Inclusive Trade”, it will be an opportunity for participants to discuss how a wider range of (...)
Representatives from more than 150 countries participated in a workshop at the WTO on 8 June to share their experiences on setting up and maintaining national trade facilitation committees, a requirement under the new Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). Experts from more than 20 countries and (...)
Director-General Roberto Azevêdo gave the closing address at a ‘Think 20’ conference on ‘Global Trade and Investment Cooperation: Openness, Inclusiveness and Growth’, which was held at the WTO on 8 June. He highlighted a range of suggestions that had been raised during the session, including the (...)
Director-General Roberto Azevêdo gave the keynote address at the World Trade Symposium in London today (7 June), organised by the Financial Times and Misys, on the topic ‘Trade and Globalisation in the 21st Century: the Path to Greater Inclusion’. His full speech is available (...)
The chairman of the WTO’s Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) urged members during a 7-8 June meeting to “revitalize” discussions in the Council, including by allowing for more open exchanges through informal (...)
WTO members undertook at the Agriculture Committee meeting on 7 and 8 June their first review of agricultural export policies since the Nairobi ministerial decision to scrap farm export subsidies in all developed countries. Members also exchanged questions and answers about WTO members’ farm (...)