The Informal Working Group on Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) on 9 October reviewed progress on the Group’s plans for the 13th Ministerial Conference, to be held in February 2024, and continued discussions under its work programme. It focused in particular on access to trade (...)
Australia has contributed just over CHF 30,000 to help government officials from least-developed countries (LDCs) take part in the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC13), which will be held from 26 to 29 February 2024 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab (...)
In a keynote speech at the 2023 Annual WTO Conference organized by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London on 6 October, Deputy Director-General Angela Ellard outlined how technological developments are changing the face of international trade. She stressed the (...)
On 6 October, 31 government officials from 13 least-developed members of and observers to the WTO completed a training course designed to provide them with an in-depth grounding in WTO trade policy. The three-week course was held at the WTO in (...)
Governments, employers’ and workers’ representatives discussed the opportunities and challenges of digitalization in the retail sector, at an ILO technical meeting.
The latest edition of the WTO’s “Global Trade Outlook and Statistics”, issued today, provides revised forecasts for global trade in 2023 and 2024. So what has led to this revised forecast?
Projections for growth in global merchandise trade in 2023 have been scaled back by WTO economists amid a continued slump that began in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the latest WTO trade forecast released on 5 October. The volume of world merchandise trade is now expected to grow by (...)
Based on notifications from developing members and least-developed country (LDC) members, five measures in the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) have been identified where assistance has been most commonly requested for implementation for the next two years. The WTO Secretariat presented this (...)
At the ninth meeting of the Working Party on the Accession of the Union of the Comoros to the WTO on 5 October, WTO members noted the substantial progress made by Comoros towards finalizing WTO accession negotiations. The delegation of Comoros reiterated its commitment to overcoming the final (...)
WTO members explored the impact of COVID-19 on trade in health services and improvements in service exports data in least-developed countries (LDCs) at two events on 4 and 5 October organized under the Council for Trade in Services. At a Council meeting on 3 October, they discussed (...)