The WTO hosted on 5 December students from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) for the closing workshop in their Trade for Peace consultancy project. Students delivered individual presentations to HSG academics and current and former WTO staff involved in the Trade for Peace Programme to highlight their research, focusing [...]
At a COP28 launch event held on 5 December in Dubai, WTO Deputy Director-General Jean-Marie Paugam announced that 42 standard-setting organizations, companies, industry associations and international organizations have now endorsed the new Steel Standards Principles. The event, co-organized by the UN Industrial Development Organization’s Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative (UNIDO/IDDI), the Breakthrough [...]
Deputy Director-General Angela Ellard participated on 5 December in the high-level roundtable on unlocking digital trade for inclusive development as part of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) “eWeek” 2023. DDG Ellard discussed how digital trade can contribute to inclusive and sustainable development and how to strengthen the [...]
The WTO and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai on 5 December that will deepen collaboration between the two multilateral organizations. The framework agreement of understanding, signed by WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and IICA Deputy [...]
A five-day course on WTO rules in accession negotiations started on 4 December at WTO headquarters in Geneva. A total of 29 government officials from 11 governments actively engaged in their respective accession negotiations are benefiting from this specialized training activity on WTO accession procedures and rules. Sessions with WTO [...]
The WTO’s ongoing negotiations on agriculture have a key role to play in helping establish fairer and more equitable food markets which in turn would help reduce global hunger and malnutrition and support the fight against climate change, Deputy Director-General Jean-Marie-Paugam said on 4 December. DDG Paugam spoke at a [...]
The chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations, Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland, on 4 December opened the final “Fish Week” of 2023 with the aim of advancing work towards an outcome by the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13). The chair presented draft language in an effort to bridge members’ views on [...]
Trade policy tools can help countries increase low-carbon goods uptake by reforming import tariffs, rethinking government procurement and promoting trade facilitation, said Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on 4 December. Speaking at the launch of “Trade Day” at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, DG Okonjo-Iweala stressed this thematic [...]
The WTO Secretariat on 2 December launched a 10-point set of “Trade Policy Tools for Climate Action” at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai to present governments with a toolkit to draw from in their efforts to meet global climate targets. The new publication explores how [...]
The WTO and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) agreed on 1 December to boost cooperation and collaboration on a range of issues in the area of food and agricultural trade and climate change. The initiative comes at a time of growing crises affecting global food security and sustainable [...]