Abu-Ghazaleh’s “WTO at the Crossroads” Report under Spotlight at the World Trade Institute in Bern

WTO rules have a history going back some 50 years but the world has changed since then. The function of the WTO as a negotiating forum needs to be revisited – HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh

BERN, SWITZERLAND ---- March 20, 2013 --- The NCCR Trade regulation, a Swiss national center of competence in research, is organizing a seminar on the “WTO at the Crossroads” by HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, chairman of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization on March 21, 2013 at the Anna Nussbaum Auditorium, World Trade Institute, University of Bern.

HE Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh will be accompanied at the seminar with Honorable Sergio Marchi as discussant.

Abu-Ghazaleh, a member of Pascal Lamy’s Panel on Defining the Future of Trade, will present his recent report entitled “WTO at the Crossroads: A Report on the Imperative of a WTO Reform Agenda”.

“WTO rules have a history going back some 50 years but the world has changed since then. The function of the WTO as a negotiating forum needs to be revisited, including finding an alternative to decision-making by consensus,” HE Abu-Ghazaleh commented.

“More attention should be given to making the WTO a knowledge organization like the World Bank, and to enabling direct participation of the private sector. Finally, accession to the WTO needs to be made less difficult; half of the Arab world is still outside the Organization and there is a relative lack of regional integration in this strategically important part of the world compared to other region,” Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh added.

To check the report:

http://tagorg.com/news.aspx?id=10084&group_key=news&keywords=wto+at+the+crossroads&lang=en

http://event.wtoarab.org/page.aspx?page_key=wto_report&lang=en