The General Council of the WTO met informally today to take stock of a range of issues, but most importantly to try to nail down a definitive date for the next ministerial conference – also known at MC12.
WTO crisis and reform
WTO: Okonjo-Iweala transformation ambitions cause a stir in Geneva
The new director-general of the World Trade Organization is serious about her desire to see change in the way things get done in Geneva. Her ambitions have irked some diplomats and also created a furore over a slew of resignations in the WTO secretariat that have come to light in …
WTO Corner: Ottawa Group, Supply Chain talk at Davos, China, Russian wood, LDC accession
There was much less of a void at or around the WTO this week. Here a round-up of developments around the world trade instirution this week. Today trade ministers are holding their annual Swiss-hosted informal WTO ministerial not, as usual, on the sidelines of Davos but online.
Comment: The new Japan-US-EU ‘trilateral’ underwent a pandemic mutation
The relaunched Japan-US-EU trilateral conversation aimed at developing new rules related to so-called ‘non-market’ behaviour in international markets is shaping up to be very different from the pre-pandemic initiative launched during the Trump administration.
WTO ‘plurilateral’ agreements brace for moment of truth
India and South Africa never liked ‘plurilateral’ agreement negotiations initiated in the World Trade Organization after the Doha ministerial conference twenty years ago. But a series of agreements among a broad subset of members of the global trade institution are coming to fruition. Now the long-simmering disagreement between these two …
Comment: Can the European Union’s plans for the WTO withstand reality?
The European Union’s trade ministers are expected to broadly endorse the new direction of trade policy as proposed by the European Commission in its Trade Policy Review last February. But can the EU’s plans hold given current geopolitical realities and the pandemic context?
WTO Corner: Trade and Health, China, MPIA, WTO Secretariat
China joins Trade and Health Initiative It’s gone almost unnoticed, but the Ottawa-Group sponsored ‘trade and healthcare’ initiative is officially expanding, with China joining the group, alongside Hong Kong, Iceland, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia and the United Kingdom. The announcement was made official in a communication circulated on 22 April …
WTO Corner: Members eye December 2021 for MC12, Section 232 cases postponed again
Ambassadors to the World Trade Organization are meeting for an intensive two-day General Council meeting where few actual decisions are expected, except the most expedient: adoption of next year’s budget, and, if all goes well, a decision on Thursday (17 December) to ban export restrictions on food items purchased by …
WTO Corner: COVID-19 vaccine IP campaigning, India and Africa on WTO reform, World Food Programme purchases
Post-COVID 19 TRIPS campaigning intensifies NGOs such as Médecins Sans Frontières (the French ‘Doctors without Borders’ humanitarian organisation) are joining the campaign of developing countries led by India and South Africa at the WTO who are asking for sweeping flexibilities and/or a waiver on intellectual property rules. The aim is …
WTO Corner: Ottawa Group eyes Joint Statement on trade and healthcare
The Ottawa Group, an informal network of countries interested in discussing reforms at the World Trade Organization established in early 2019 is seeking improvements in the way trade in healthcare products is handled beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic. The signatories are eyeing a possible Joint Statement in early 2021, which …
