This year’s Public Forum of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will look at how trade can contribute to post-pandemic economic recovery. The Forum will examine, in particular, how trade rules can be strengthened, and government policies improved to create a more resilient, sustainable and inclusive trading system.
The Public Forum is the WTO’s largest annual outreach event. It provides a unique platform for heads of states, parliamentarians, business people, students, academics and civil society to come together and debate a wide range of trade and development topics. Over 1,500 participants attend the Forum each year.
Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented shock to the global economy. The crisis pushed the world into its deepest economic decline since World War II, and nearly 100 million people were pushed into extreme poverty in 2020, according to the World Bank. The International Labour Organization estimates that global unemployment will rise to 205 million in 2022 from 187 million in 2019, disproportionately impacting women and young people.
This year´s Forum has three subthemes:
- Leveraging technology for an inclusive recovery
- Delivering a trade agenda for a sustainable future
- Framing the future of trade
More information can be found on the website of the World Trade Organisation.
For further reading on the topic of the world trade:
Trade and Investment by Pablo Sánchez Centellas and Lucía Bárcena Menéndez
Programme
The complete programme will be available on the WTO website.
transform europe! will be represented at the following working session:
Democratic Technological Development and Overcoming the Digital Divide in the Post-Covid Recovery
Tuesday, 27 September 2022
17:30—18:45 CET
Speakers:
- Parminder Jeet Singh, Executive Director of IT for Change; Bangalore, India
- Sofia Scasserra, associate researcher with the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Ekaitz Cancela, Journalist and Researcher, author of the transform! europe study: “Europe´s Third Way to Technological Sovereignty. A Critique”
- Aitor Montesa, European Commission, Head of the Digital Trade Sector in DG TRADE’s Services and Digital Trade Unit
Moderation:
- Helmut Scholz, Die LINKE, Member of European Parliament, The Left
Organisers:
- Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung (RLS)
- transform! europe (t!)
- IT for Change (ITfC)
- Transnational Institute (TNI)