Brazil, China, Costa Rica and the United Kingdom presented how they are implementing services domestic regulation disciplines at the national level at a virtual meeting of the negotiations on services domestic regulation on 10 June. Participants also welcomed the UK’s draft schedule of (...)
Global progress to end child labour has come to a halt for the first time in over two decades, reversing the downward trend that saw child labour fall by 94 million between 2000 and 2016. The number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million (...)
While the COVID-19 crisis threatens to reverse years of progress in the fight against child labour, international leaders and advocates encourage all stakeholders to redouble efforts in the context of the International Year for the Elimination of Child (...)
At a meeting of the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) on 2-4 and 9 June, WTO members discussed 20 proposals submitted under the Triennial Review of the TBT Agreement. The review will now move to a second phase, with the preparation of a draft report based on the 31 proposals (...)
WTO members moved closer to a text-based process to address the proposals put forward by delegations aimed at improving the international response to COVID-19 and achieving the common goal of providing global equitable access to vaccines and other medical products. At the formal meeting of the (...)
On 9 June, the Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, welcomed the Head of Government of Tunisia, H.E. Mr. Hichem Mechichi, to the WTO. Discussions focused on access to and production capacity for vaccines, challenges in the run up to the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, and the importance (...)
The WTO’s Technical Assistance Annual Report, released on 8 June, reveals how WTO capacity-building support continued to be provided to government officials from developing and least-developed countries in 2020 in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic. The WTO’s programmes have helped beneficiaries to (...)
Marking World Ocean Day on 8 June, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, and Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations, called on WTO members to deliver a long-awaited agreement to curb funding for harmful fishing. The opportunity to find (...)
Millions of people depend directly on the sea for their livelihoods and hundreds of millions more rely on them for food. Safeguarding the rights and conditions of seafarers has been part of the ILO’s work for more than 100 years. In June 2022, Member States adopted important amendments to the (...)
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala welcomed Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid to the WTO on 7 June. The two discussed the state of play of trade negotiations at the WTO, the challenges ahead of the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference and the importance of empowering women in (...)