From 20 to 26 March 2024, university students from 35 economies around the world participated in the 27th edition of “Model WTO” in St. Gallen and Geneva, Switzerland.

“Model WTO” is an intensive six-day negotiating exercise in which students, each acting as a representative of a WTO member, work together in negotiating committees to produce a final conference resolution.

The topic for Model WTO 2024 was the WTO and subsidies. The students debated the effects of subsidies on trade and the WTO's regulatory role in this respect. Through different committees, they discussed and negotiated texts on “non-actionable” subsidies, on the importance of transparency in subsidies and related notification requirements, on environmentally supportive and harmful subsidies and on the role of subsidies in the services sector. Participants benefited from the support of the WTO Secretariat and the WTO delegations they represented.

At the closing ceremony at the WTO on 26 March, a panel of experts discussed the challenges facing the WTO and multilateralism in general. Audrey Goosen, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the WTO, called for realistic expectations for the WTO's future work and said there is no alternative to the WTO. Pierre Sauvé of the World Bank highlighted the benefits of adopting a more flexible and varied way of deliberating and taking decisions at the WTO. Anne-Katrin Pfister of the World Economic Forum underlined WEF's strong support for the WTO's work and suggested a greater focus on the importance of the digital economy and the link between trade and climate policy.

All the panellists praised the students for their enthusiasm and dedication to finding multilateral solutions for global problems. With the involvement and commitment of the next generation, multilateralism will be able to survive and prosper, they said.

The WTO is a strong supporter of Model WTO because the event provides tomorrow's generation of decision-makers with the opportunity to enhance their understanding of the multilateral trading system and to experience at first hand the dynamics of trade negotiations.