Speaking at the final 2022 meeting of the WTO’s General Council on 19-20 December, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala urged Geneva-based delegates to use the upcoming year-end break to reach out to their respective capitals for guidance and instructions and get the organization “back on track” (...)
WTO members considered two requests from the European Union for dispute panels at a meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body on 20 December: one regarding Chinese measures affecting trade in goods and services with Lithuania, and a second regarding China’s enforcement of intellectual property (...)
At a meeting of the General Council on 19 December, WTO members agreed to a proposal from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Cameroon to host consecutive Ministerial Conferences. Under an arrangement agreed between the two countries, the UAE will host the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) the (...)
When Suman Kumari was 13 her father became ill and the family fell into debt. When COVID-19 hit and with creditors at the door, she joined her mother at her workplace processing mica, a mineral dust used in cosmetics, paints and electronics. An ILO project has helped her return to (...)
The WTO Secretariat has circulated a meeting notice and list of items proposed for the next meeting, on 20 December 2022, of the Dispute Settlement Body, which consists of all WTO members and oversees legal disputes among them. The meeting notice is circulated in the form of a document (...)
The Joint Technical Symposium held on 16 December by the World Health Organization (WHO), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) highlighted that the world can move quickly when driven by a crisis situation, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. (...)
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala welcomed progress made by participants in the negotiations on investment facilitation for development (IFD) towards a meaningful and effective agreement. Speaking on 16 December at a high-level stocktaking session organized by participating members, DG (...)
WTO members agreed today to recommend that the General Council extends the 17 December deadline established to decide on whether the TRIPS Decision adopted in June at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference should be extended to COVID-19 diagnostics and (...)