Recent World Trade Organization Notices
The World Trade Organization recently posted the following notices:​
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- General Council approves first ever amendment to Trade Policy Review Mechanism. The WTO General Council approved landmark reforms to the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) on July 26 to improve the process of reviewing members’ trade policies and practices and the monitoring of the global trading environment (here).
- Azerbaijan urged to step up bilateral talks with WTO members on membership terms. Azerbaijan was urged on July 28 to step up bilateral talks with WTO members on market access commitments for goods and services in order to accelerate its efforts to secure WTO membership (here).
- WTO issues annual flagship statistical publications. The WTO issued on July 28 new editions of its flagship statistical publications: the World Trade Statistical Review, Trade Profiles and World Tariff Profiles (here).
- General Council elects Vice Chairs for Buenos Aires Ministerial Conference. At a General Council meeting on July 26, WTO members elected three officials to serve as Vice Chairs for the WTO’s 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11) in Buenos Aires (here).
- Azevêdo reports on status of negotiations; stresses continued importance of transparency. In a gathering of all WTO members on July 25, Director-General Roberto Azevêdo called for them to show realism and urgency in preparations for the 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11), which will take place in Buenos Aires in December 2017 (here).
- DG Azevêdo, MC11 chair & negotiating group chairs discuss the road to Buenos Aires. Director-General Roberto Azevêdo and the Chair of the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference, Minister Susana Malcorra, co-chaired a meeting of the WTO negotiating group chairs to discuss preparations for the Conference, which will be held in Buenos Aires in December this year (here).
- Cotton producers call for progress in curbing domestic subsidies. An overwhelming majority of WTO members have reiterated their support for a meaningful and specific outcome on cotton domestic support, the chair of the agricultural negotiations, Ambassador Stephen Ndung’u Karau of Kenya, said during the latest discussions on cotton on July 24 (here).
- Informal meeting of the Trade Policy Review Body: Trade Monitoring Report. Remarks by Director-General Roberto Azevêdo (here).
- Members issue joint call for safeguarding the WTO-based global trading system. A group of 47 developing and developed WTO members issued a joint call on July 26 for fellow members to work together to ensure the sound functioning of the WTO-based multilateral trading system as it faces a number of important challenges ahead (here).
- Ireland gives EUR 350,000 to promote participation of developing countries in world trade. The government of Ireland is contributing EUR 350,000 (CHF 367,000) in 2017 to WTO trade-related programmes to help developing countries and in particular least-developed countries (LDCs) participate in multilateral trade negotiations and better access agricultural markets (here).
- MiIestone reached with the 500th amendment to WTO goods schedules. The update of Argentina’s WTO Goods Schedule, which was formally initiated on July 26, marks the 500th notification under special procedures to modify these important legal instruments that form an integral part of the WTO legal texts (here).