The chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, introduced on 11 May a new draft text aimed at bringing members closer to agreement ahead of the 15 July meeting of ministers. The text is based on members’ collective work and proposes landing zones to (...)
The WTO has launched a new booklet highlighting ten key results from the latest annual review of the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement. The booklet outlines how WTO members are implementing the Agreement.
WTO members participating in the negotiations on services domestic regulation shared how they are implementing disciplines at the national level when they met virtually on 10 May. The objective of the talks is to increase transparency and predictability of authorization procedures to reduce the (...)
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala met with senior Italian leaders — including Prime Minister Mario Draghi — on 9-10 May to discuss the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the role the WTO can play in accelerating economic (...)
A panel of leading experts will explore on 12 May the impact of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) on health technology diffusion over the past 25 years and its role in the broader ecosystem that is required to support innovation and equitable access (...)
“I read with interest the statement made yesterday by USTR Katherine Tai and I warmly welcome her willingness to engage with proponents of a temporary waiver of the TRIPS Agreement to help in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. As I told the General Council yesterday, we need to respond urgently (...)
Ensuring access to essential medical goods during a pandemic, securing a global deal on prohibiting harmful fisheries subsidies and addressing the concerns of “graduating” least developed countries were among the topics discussed at the 5-6 May meeting of the WTO’s General Council. Members also (...)
New due diligence tool aims to help businesses uphold their responsibility to protect human rights at sea, as new COVID variants threaten to further delay crew changes.
WTO members must respond urgently to the need for a multilateral solution to ensure equitable access to vaccines worldwide, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala declared on 5 May, describing it as the “moral and economic issue of our time”. The WTO chief made her remarks at a meeting of the (...)