The WTO at 20: achievements and challenges

Launched in 1999, the Forum is an annual event organised by the WTI that brings together leading international scholars and practitioners for two days of discussion on a topical trade issue.

The theme this year is 20 Years of the WTO: Past Performance and Ongoing Challenges.

Over the two days participants will discuss the trade body’s history; new regulatory solutions; dispute-settlement and compliance; re-emergence of big power politics; and the relationship between the WTO, preferential trade agreements, and megaregionals.

Keynote speakers include: Professor Judith Goldstein, Stanford University; Professor Debra Steger, Ottawa University; Professor Douglas Irwin, Dartmouth College; Victor do Prado, World Trade Organization; Chad Bown, World Bank; Patrick Low, University of Hong Kong; Joakim Reiter, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; Ricardo Cortés-Monroy, Nestlé, and Peter Van den Bossche, WTO/Maastricht University.

Three plenary sessions will consider expectations and early developments, performance, and future challenges and opportunities.

In addition, parallel sessions will focus on non-tariff measures and new trade issues; PTAs, megaregionals and the WTO, and a World Trade Forum book project.

The Forum is being organised in conjunction with the European University Institute (EUI), Florence, the Graduate Institute (Geneva), and the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London). It will be held at the Kursaal conference centre in Bern.

Full programme details can be viewed here.

To register, follow this link.