Trade and Development Symposium
16th – 17th December 2011
Discuss this eventShare your views with other visitors, and read what they have to say
ICTSD is organising the Trade and Development Symposium (TDS) on the ‘Future of the Multilateral Trading System’, to take place over two days in parallel to the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization.
The ministerial conference is the top-most decision making body of the WTO, which brings together all members of the WTO. Decisions can be made on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements. Therefore ICTSD aims to influence this process by providing a forum to engage in substantive discussions outside the negotiating context. Prior to this year´s Trade and Development Symposium, ICTSD has organized similar events in conjunction with WTO ministerial conferences in Cancun (2003), Hong Kong (2005), and Geneva (2009).
This year´s WTO Ministerial Conference will take place at a difficult and critical juncture. The world economy is in turmoil, fiscal and trade imbalances continue unabated, and no end is in sight for the Doha negotiations. In addition new pressuring challenges call for rapid responses by the multilateral trading system. A new generation of trade barriers, the proliferation of regional trade pacts and the emergence of greater public policy concerns, including climate protection, food security and the move towards more sustainable energy use and production require coordinated action. The fragmentation of production through highly complex global value chains poses further challenges at the analytical and policy level.
Meanwhile, while some developing countries are now fully integrated into the world trading system, the marginalization of the poorest ones could not be overstated. The world continues to be a place of persistent poverty and inequality. It is against this background that ministers will gather in Geneva. They will not be called to provide answers to all the world illness, but they cannot escape to address the way in which the multilateral trading system, embodied in the WTO, will be affected by the above mentioned challenges.
In order to facilitate mutli-stakeholder discussion on an array of these challenges, ICTSD will be conveying the Trade and Development Symposium 2011.
For more information and registration, please click here.
Important: Please be aware that in order to access the TDS, you must be registered.
For any further information you may require please contact Mrs. De Gardelle (cdegardelle@ictsd.ch, +41 229178492)
2 responses to “Trade and Development Symposium”
Add a comment
Enter your details and a comment below, then click Submit Comment. We’ll review and publish the best comments.
Globally, water and food scarcity is increasing, yet the global population is increasing. There is an urgent need to surpport the physical and mental health of all farmers, workers and consumers. The World governments have to account for the public health impacts across the entire life cycle of how food is produced, processed, packaged, labelled, distributed, marketed, consumed and disposed of. Conserve, protect and regenerates natural resources, landscapes, and diversity. In sum, to be water and food secure globally, we have to address them holistically by addressing all the above mentioned issues at ago if we are to meet our current food and nutrition needs without compromising the ability of the system to meet the needs of future generations.
It is true the rate of population is increasing and there is a need for an increase in the provision of food, basic needs and good health care. The Millennium Development Goals are set to be achieved by 2015, but what happens after that period if some countries of the world have not achieved one-quarter or one of the goals. Also, we need to look at the synergy between trade theories and come out with suggestion that will have positive impact on poor in the society. So, the contribution from agriculture cannot be over emphasized. Government in most countries of the world claim to support agriculture to reduce the poverty level of the citizenry but, I want to disagree with them that it was not so. If their claim was right many people should have moved toward that direction. The abject poverty is so much that people die of hunger. The Solution could come if international organisations directly support individual or group of people that are interested in agriculture; support those who have piece of land with seedlings / plants / input and funds. We need to be proactive to achieve the sustainable development that the United Nations stands to pursue.