Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the fisheries subsidies negotiations chair, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, urged WTO members on 21 April to prepare to make tough calls and pave the way for a ministerial meeting in July in a bid to deliver an agreement that will curb harmful (...)
Trying to find information on what WTO members are doing on services? A new addition to the WTO’s Trade Monitoring Database allows anyone to search for laws, regulations or other measures adopted by members relating to trade in services, either by member, by services sector, or (...)
At a meeting on e-commerce negotiations held on 20 April, WTO members participating in the talks announced that a “clean” negotiating text on the issue of e-signatures and authentication has been finalised. The co-convenors of the talks — Australia, Japan and Singapore — commended members for their (...)
An analysis of least-developed countries’ (LDCs) trade flows in 2020, presented to WTO members at a meeting of the Sub-Committee on LDCs on 19 April, revealed that the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on trade was worse for LDCs than for the world as a whole. In addition, delegations (...)
The WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) will take place from 30 November to 3 December 2021 in Geneva, Switzerland, the chair of the organization’s General Council confirmed on 16 April.
Jordanian Omar Abu Noa’aj has struggled to find work for years due to his physical disability. Last year, an ILO employment centre helped him secure his first formal job at a garment factory, giving him a new sense of independence and (...)
The WTO is organizing a virtual seminar on 20 April 2021 to explore the burgeoning trade in knowledge within the framework of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The webinar is part of a series of events to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the (...)
A WTO workshop to discuss developments in information and communications technology (ICT) will take place on 16 September in Geneva, according to a decision made at the meeting of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) Committee on 15 April. The workshop will examine how trade in ICT (...)
Close to 60 students from around the world successfully concluded on 15 April the 24th edition of Model WTO, a week-long simulation of WTO negotiations organized by students from the University of St. Gallen with the support of the (...)
Many migrant workers – particularly low skilled workers – find themselves paying large recruitment fees to intermediaries in order to secure work overseas. The recruitment processes are often unclear and opens them up to abuse. The ILO has been addressing the issue through its Fair Recruitment (...)