On 31 May 2016, Malaysia notified the WTO’s Committee on Safeguards that it initiated on 28 May 2016 a safeguard investigation on steel concrete reinforcing bar, and on 29 May 2016, on steel wire rod and deformed bar-in-coil.
Sri Lanka has become the latest WTO member to ratify the new Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the WTO, R.D. Susiri Kumararatne, presented his country’s instrument of acceptance to Director-General Roberto Azevêdo on 31 (...)
Business leaders meeting today (30 May 2016) at the WTO headquarters outlined how the organization could address the current needs of the business community. In addition to the current negotiating agenda, they urged the WTO to look at a wide range of issues such as electronic commerce, rules to (...)
The WTO has published its 2016 Annual Report covering the organization’s activities in 2015 and early 2016. The Report begins with a message from Director-General Roberto Azevêdo, who looks back at a memorable year for the WTO marked by the organization’s 20-year anniversary and the successful (...)
Director-General Roberto Azevêdo is in Astana, Kazakhstan, today (26 May) to meet with President Nursultan Nazarbayev to discuss the country’s recent accession to the WTO and its prospects for further integration into the global economy. DG Azevêdo also met with Prime Minister Karim Massimov and (...)
Trade policy must be carefully crafted to ensure trade helps to reduce poverty, concluded a joint WTO-World Bank forum on 26 May, with speakers explaining how sound policies can help farmers, women and workers benefit from trade.
A WTO/World Bank Forum on trade and poverty, partly organized by the WTO Chairs Programme, took place at the WTO on 26 May 2016. The forum, whose theme was “Connecting to trade: policies and programmes for maximizing poverty reduction impact”, was opened by Bridget Chilala, Director of the WTO’s (...)
The government of Liechtenstein has contributed CHF 40,000 in 2016 to help developing countries and least-developed countries (LDCs) participate effectively in global trade negotiations. This donation to the WTO’s Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund (DDAGTF) will finance training workshops (...)
Support for programmes intended to help poorer countries expand their participation in global trade continues to be provided but funding for trade facilitation and least-developed countries (LDCs), in particular, fell in 2014, WTO members heard in an Aid-for-Trade session of the Committee on (...)