At a February 21 event organized for the business community at the World Trade Organization’s Geneva headquarters, the WTO announced the results of a recent survey of businesses and launched a dedicated web area for business on the WTO website. It also launched an electronic newsletter targeted specifically at the private sector.
At the event, Stefano Bertasi, policy director at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), for which USCIB serves as American affiliate, provided an update on ICC’s World Trade Agenda initiative, and Carlos Braga of the Evian Group gave his perspective on the relations between business and the WTO.
“This meeting is the first of what we hope will be a series of encounters between the WTO and the business community through which we hope to strengthen our dialogue and our interaction,” said Keith Rockwell, the WTO’s director of information and external relations.
USCIB recently released its own 2013 trade and investment agenda, which is complementary to ICC’s initiative and focuses on completing trade agreements with Asia and Europe, moving forward with strong new bilateral investment treaties, including with China and India and revitalizing work in the WTO. USCIB’s agenda also aims to address new regulatory challenges around the world that bear on market access for U.S. trade and investment, including preferential treatment for state-owned enterprises and efforts by governments to impose forced localization requirements on companies as conditions for market access.
The aim of the new WTO web page is to make key information for the private sector, such as trade statistics and trade monitoring news, easily accessible in one dedicated area. The newsletter, which will be issued on a regular basis, includes the latest business-focused trade news from the WTO. It will be circulated electronically to all business representatives who register online.
Staff contacts: Rob Mulligan
