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.

The Forum will feature two high-level plenary debates on 27 September.

In the first debate, entitled “Making Trade Truly Inclusive”, the participants will look at how the WTO can foster SMEs’ participation in global trade, how trade has helped countries to innovate and how women can overcome the constraints preventing them from reaping the benefits of trade.

The second plenary debate will see the launch of the WTO’s flagship publication, the World Trade Report, which will look at SMEs’ participation in international trade.

The provisional programme is available here.

 

Book launches and presentations

In addition to the launch of the World Trade Report, the Forum will feature the launch of a publication on Africa’s integration into the global economy and a new title on regional trade agreements and the multilateral trading system, jointly published by the WTO and Cambridge University Press.

The Forum will also feature “Meet the author” sessions, co-organized by the WTO Bookshop and the Library, where selected authors will present their latest books.

 

Side events

A special display in the WTO’s atrium will focus on how women can gain from trade. Parties from both inside and outside the WTO will showcase in what ways trade can be of benefit to women. Public Forum participants will be able to propose how the WTO rule book could be amended to foster women’s participation in world trade.

A Soapbox Debate will also be organized by the Permanent Mission of The Netherlands in collaboration with Bangladesh on the theme “Responsible business in global value chains: Who is responsible?”.

 

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.

 

Social media

Twitter handlers can use #InclusiveTrade #WTOPublicForum throughout the Forum.

 

Registration

All participants must complete an online application form available on the Public Forum website: www.wto.org/pf16.

Registration will remain open until 18 September 2016.