Director-General Roberto Azevêdo has informed WTO members that, as of 11 March, all meetings at the WTO will be suspended until 20 March. The decision follows confirmation that one WTO staff member has contracted the COVID-19 (...)
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) should submit their requests for accreditation for the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) no later than 29 March 2020 (midnight, GMT).
At an event at the WTO on 6 March 2020 celebrating International Women’s Day, Director-General Roberto Azevêdo highlighted the organization’s role, both as a global trade authority and an employer, in making gender equality a reality. He reported on efforts undertaken so far and introduced new (...)
Director-General Roberto Azevêdo and the chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, called on heads of WTO delegations (HoDs) on 6 March to immediately prepare to make critical decisions as work to develop a consolidated text of an agreement gets under (...)
At a meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) on 5 March, WTO members considered two requests from the European Union for dispute panels to examine India’s tariffs on certain high-tech goods and Colombia’s anti-dumping duties on frozen fries from Belgium, Germany and the (...)
Least developed country (LDC) members called for a decision at the WTO’s upcoming Ministerial Conference in June to strengthen the mandate of the Committee on Rules of Origin (CRO) by setting clearer obligations for preference-granting members to monitor the impact of their rules of origin on (...)
The number of young people currently not in employment, education or training (NEET) is rising, and young women are more than twice as likely as their male counterparts to be affected, according to the new International Labour Organization (ILO) report Global Employment Trends for Youth 2020: (...)
Trade diplomats, technical experts and business representatives gathered at the WTO on 4 March to mark the 25th anniversary of the Agreement on Rules of Origin — one of the WTO’s key accords covering trade policy measures which increasingly impact everyday cross-border trade. The event took place (...)