The WTO held a technical symposium on 29 June 2021 to address the main challenges to vaccine supply chain and regulatory transparency in the context of COVID-19. Representatives of the medical and pharmaceutical industry, international organizations and the WTO Secretariat explored new ways to (...)
WTO members agreed to extend until 1 July 2034 the deadline for least developed countries (LDCs) to protect intellectual property under the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Members reached consensus on the 13-year extension of the current (...)
Australia has requested WTO dispute consultations with China concerning anti-dumping and countervailing duty measures imposed by China on imports of bottled wine from Australia. The request was circulated to WTO members on 28 (...)
New Zealand is contributing CHF 50,000 to help the least-developed countries (LDCs) within the WTO membership participate in the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12), which will take place the week of 29 November 2021 in Geneva.
Trade policy restraint by G20 economies, as well as WTO members more broadly, prevented a destructive acceleration of protectionist trade measures that would have further hurt the world economy, according to the WTO’s latest Trade Monitoring Report. But WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (...)
At a meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) on 28 June, WTO members considered a request from Canada for the establishment of a WTO dispute panel to examine measures in China affecting the import of canola seed from Canada.
The 2020 Annual Report of the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), released on 24 June, reveals that EIF projects carried out in least-developed countries (LDCs) have helped to support economic resilience despite the challenges caused by COVID-19. The EIF contributed to 37 projects in LDCs in (...)
The “Digital Champions for Small Business “ initiative was launched today (25 June 2021) at a joint event hosted by the Informal Working Group on Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The aim of the (...)
Hundreds of thousands of seafarers are still unable to join and leave their vessels due to restrictions put in place to contain COVID-19. It is critical to respect the rights of seafarers, as set out in maritime law, and ensure seafarers have a fair and sustainable future. (...)
Global merchandise trade continued to bounce back in the first quarter of 2021 from its collapse earlier in the pandemic, but the pace of recovery has diverged strongly across countries and regions. The volume of merchandise exports and imports in the first quarter rose to new heights in Asia, (...)