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Parliamentary Conference on the WTO

The Parliamentary Conference on the WTO, organized jointly by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the European Parliament (EP), has become a regular fixture on the international calendar. Sessions are organized each year as well as on the occasion of WTO Ministerial Conferences.

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The aim of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO is to “strengthen democracy at the international level by bringing a parliamentary dimension to multilateral cooperation on trade issues”. In this regard, the Conference provides legislators with the opportunity to examine developments in the WTO, obtain first-hand information on the state of multilateral trade negotiations, and consider a possible parliamentary contribution to these multilateral processes.

These conferences usually include a briefing from the Director-General of the WTO and dialogue with Geneva-based trade diplomats, including the Chairs of WTO negotiating groups.

Six sessions of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO have been held since 2003. These took place in: Geneva, February 2003; Cancún, September 2003; Brussels, November 2004; Hong Kong, December 2005; Geneva, December 2006 and September 2008. Previously, ad-hoc parliamentary events were held in Seattle in 1999 and in Doha in 2001.