The WTO is welcoming applications for its 2022 Young Professionals Programme (YPP), which allows qualified young professionals from developing and least-developed countries to enhance their knowledge regarding WTO and international trade issues. The YPP is a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience which can help open the door for future professional opportunities in the field of multilateral diplomacy and global trade.

The YPP selection gives preference to young professionals from developing and least-developed countries that are members of the WTO and whose nationals are currently under-represented or not represented in the organization's Secretariat. The programme is part of the Secretariat's overall goal to increase its diversity to better reflect the make-up of its membership.

Candidates up to the age of 32, as of 1 January 2022, from eligible countries are invited to submit their application by 29 April 2021. The selected candidates will work at...

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The Economic Research and Statistics Division (ERSD) of the World Trade Organization is pleased to invite you to the 3rd webinar on Economic Resilience, entitled “The Role of International Cooperation in Economic Resilience”, on Thursday 29 April at 4:00-5:30 p.m. CET.

The growing number and negative economic impact of natural and man-made disasters, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have brought renewed attention to economic resilience, as a strategy to prepare for, cope with, and recover from local and global disruptions and shocks. Different public policies, including trade policy, can be designed and implemented to reduce risk, cushion the initial impact of shocks and support faster recovery.

In that context, the role of international cooperation in supporting and strengthening economic resilience is sometimes overlooked. Yet, international cooperation can leverage synergies and yield both individual and collective benefits. Building effective...

The report includes data from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) trade monitor portal launched in October 2020 and analyses WTO members' notifications on COVID-19. Progress is measured against the benchmarks in the Vienna Programme of Action for LLDCs for the Decade 2014-2024, which recommends actions to be undertaken by LLDCs, transit countries and development partners to support the economic development of LLDCs.

While the share of LLDCs' merchandise exports increased by 6 per cent between 2015 and 2019, their services exports have declined over the same period by almost 2 per cent and remain very low. LLDCs' export competitiveness is negatively affected by a lack of sea access, distance from international markets and high transit costs, with LLDCs continuing to depend on exports of a limited number of low value-added products. Additional challenges include weak healthcare systems, economic vulnerabilities and lack of financial resources.

The COVID-19...

TRIPS at 25 Webinar: TRIPS and competition" will look at the evolution of this particular dimension of competition policy and the legal context of the TRIPS Agreement. A forthcoming scholarly publication - "Competition Policy and Intellectual Property in Today's Global Economy" - will provide a fresh, global perspective on developments in this critical field. The webinar will also provide an informal introduction to some of the themes of this volume, in advance of its impending launch.

The webinar will map out the evolution of policy thinking in this area and will examine the practical implementation of diverse measures that seek to bolster a positive linkage between intellectual property (IP) and competition in jurisdictions around the world. The event will explore developments and policy issues in this area from an international and comparative perspective, including key doctrinal and policy issues, and the evolution of policy thinking over the past 25 years. A...

The report includes data from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) trade monitor portal launched in October 2020 and analyses WTO members' notifications on COVID-19. Progress is measured against the benchmarks in the Vienna Programme of Action for LLDCs for the Decade 2014-2024, which recommends actions to be undertaken by LLDCs, transit countries and development partners to support the economic development of LLDCs.

While the share of LLDCs' merchandise exports increased by 6 per cent between 2015 and 2019, their services exports have declined over the same period by almost 2 per cent and remain very low. LLDCs' export competitiveness is negatively affected by a lack of sea access, distance from international markets and high transit costs, with LLDCs continuing to depend on exports of a limited number of low value-added products. Additional challenges include weak healthcare systems, economic vulnerabilities and lack of financial resources.

The COVID-19...

Miguel Rodríguez was an “astute and politically savvy trade specialist", WTO Director-General Okonjo-Iweala said.  "He helped to advance the trade policy agenda during difficult times for the WTO. He will be sorely missed by the WTO community. My thoughts are with his family and friends.”

During his tenure as Deputy Director-General, Miguel Rodríguez Mendoza oversaw work on agriculture, economic research, trade policy reviews and the WTO's General Council.  He joined Mike Moore because of his wealth of experience with trade negotiations and trade policy making.  Miguel Rodríguez successfully led Venezuela's accession to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1990 and was Minister of State and President of Venezuela's Institute of Foreign Trade.  Until 1998, he was the Chief Trade Advisor at the Organization of American States (OAS), after which he worked as a trade consultant. He chaired six WTO dispute settlement panels and was a...

A WTO member may take a “safeguard” action (i.e., restrict imports of a product temporarily) to protect a specific domestic industry from an increase in imports of any product which is causing, or which is threatening to cause, serious injury to the industry.

Safeguard measures were always available under the GATT (Article XIX). However, they were infrequently used, and some governments preferred to protect their industries through “grey area” measures (“voluntary” export restraint arrangements on products such as cars, steel and semiconductors).

The WTO Safeguards Agreement broke new ground in prohibiting “grey area” measures and setting time limits (“sunset clause”) on all safeguard actions.

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The WTO Secretariat has circulated a meeting notice and list of items proposed for the next meeting, on 28 April 2021, of the Dispute Settlement Body, which consists of all WTO members and oversees legal disputes among them. The meeting notice is circulated in the form of a document officially called an “airgram”.

The seminar builds on, and contributes to, the WTO Secretariat's work to update and broaden its outreach and capacity building on the policy and development implications of the IP dimension of knowledge flows. It draws on the insights from an earlier Seminar on Intellectual Property and Knowledge Flows in a Digital Era and foreshadows a WTO publication, Trade in Knowledge, to be published later this year.  

Panellists will look at the growth and diversity of trade in digital products as defined by intellectual property rights, trade in IP products on digital platforms, and the knowledge component of global value chains. They will explore how IP and licensing practices define and enable trade in digital products and support trade on digital platforms, as well as their coherence with the trading system and development opportunities.

Expert speakers will join the webinar from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World...

The WTO Young Professionals Programme was launched in 2016 as an opportunity for qualified young professionals from developing and least-developed countries that are members of the WTO to enhance their knowledge regarding WTO and international trade issues. The programme aims to attract professionals from under-represented countries who can consequently improve their chances of being recruited by the WTO and/or other regional and international organizations. The Programme is part of the Secretariat's efforts to increase diversity and broaden the representation of the membership.

Speaking at the conclusion of the WTO-organized meeting “COVID-19 and Vaccine Equity: What Can the WTO Contribute?”, the Director-General said that statements from government ministers, vaccine manufacturers, civil society advocates and leaders of international organizations had identified problems and pointed to potential solutions.  

“This is a problem of the global commons, and we have to solve it together,” she said.

She expressed hope that the meeting, which included roughly 50 speakers, would serve as the basis for continued dialogue aimed at delivering results in terms of increased vaccine production volumes in the short-term as well as longer-term investments in vaccine production and enhancing the trading system's contribution to pandemic preparedness.

The discussion shed light on the complexity of the vaccine scale-up challenge, DG Okonjo-Iweala said.

The large number of trade-related concerns expressed during the meeting, from...