23 Oct 2015
Thomas Cottier addresses Singapore-WTO policy meeting
Professor Thomas Cottier, senior research fellow and former WTI managing director, was invited to speak at the 3rd Singapore WTO Trade Policy Dialogue on 19-20 October on the topic of “The WTO: 20 Years and Beyond”.
It was jointly organised by the WTO and the Singapore Management University and its Center for Cross Border Commercial Law in Asia.
In light of negotiations completed on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), discussions focused on the future, post Doha Agenda role of the WTO.
While market access issues (tariffs, QRs) will remain with preferential trade, the WTO should seek to identify its unique selling points (USP) and focus on regulatory issues, in particular subsidies in goods and services, and sectorial agreements, for example on trade in electricity in the context of climate change mitigation, he argued.
The 3rd Singapore-WTO Trade Policy Dialogue came ahead of the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC10) to be held in Kenya on 15-18 December.
Further info
Structural_Reform_of_the_WTO_1015_fin.ppt