Programme

The sessions will be organized by a wide range of participants, including WTO members, businesses, non-governmental organizations, academia, law firms and international organizations. Topics for debate include how trade can help reduce economic gaps between developed and developing countries, how trade provides legal guarantees for traders, how trade fosters global integration, and how intellectual property rights function for global trade.

The Forum will also feature two high-level plenary debates on 30 September.

For the first time, a women-only panel will open the Public Forum to discuss “Making Trade Work More Inclusively”. The debate will look at how international trade can close the gaps between countries, how trade contributes to socio-economic development, and how trade policy should be shaped at the multilateral level.

In the second plenary debate, entitled “Making Trade Work for Business”, the speakers will exchange views on how trade policy should be used to address global challenges, how trade can work better and where the WTO can do more for the private sector, now and in the next 20 years.

The provisional programme is available here.

Book launches

The Forum will feature a number of book launches associated with the WTO's 20th anniversary.

Updates

Regular updates on the Public Forum will be published on the WTO website and via the WTO's social media channels. These will include a wide selection of photos, which will also be made available on Flickr.

Registration

All participants must complete an online application form available on the Public Forum website: www.wto.org/pf15. Registration will remain open until 20 September 2015.