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WTO PUBLIC FORUM 2016

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Moderator

Oonagh Fitzgerald, Chair/Moderator, Director, International Law Research Program, Centre for International Governance Innovation, Canada

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This panel will address the potential exclusionary properties of RTAs and how these can be mitigated by the establishment of better transparency mechanisms in the WTO. The Transparency Mechanisms on RTAs reflect some of the most recent transparency challenges in the WTO. The panel will discuss the transformation of the current provisional Transparency Mechanisms into a permanent mechanism on regional trade agreement and will address the inclusiveness potential created by the two mechanisms for developing and least developed countries, other small and medium-sized economies that are not part of RTAs and various industries that request information on the effect of the proliferating RTAs on WTO rules. It will also propose next steps for the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements in order to ensure that the WTO remains as inclusive in view of the expansion of the spaghetti bowl of RTAs.

Speakers

  • David Gantz, Speaker, Samuel M. Fegtly Professor of Law; Director Emeritus, International Economic Law and Policy Program, James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona
  • Tania Voon, Speaker, Professor of Law, Melbourne Law School, Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge
  • Vangelis Vitalis, Speaker, New Zealand’s Ambassador to the World Trade Organization.
  • Maria Panezi, Speaker, Post-Doctoral Fellow, International Law Research Program, Centre for International Governance Innovation, Canada
  • Rohini Acharya, Chief of Section, Regional Trade Agreements Section, WTO Secretariat