3 October 2015: This year’s Public Forum of the World Trade Organization (WTO) convened under the theme ‘Trade Works,’ which, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the WTO, provided the opportunity to discuss and assess the contribution that cooperation in the WTO has made to the “strength and stability of the world economy.” The Forum, which convened from 30 September to 2 October 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland, specifically focused on how trade works through the multilateral system to boost growth, lift people out of poverty, increase access to goods and medicines, and promote peaceful, mutually-beneficial relationships between nations. The Forum also addressed areas where trade can work better and where the WTO can do more.While trade creates opportunities, countries must know how to maximize them and integrate them into their economic and social policies. The Forum attempted to address this and other issues by answering such questions as: what makes trade work for some countries and not for others; how can countries be assisted, via trade, in fitting into the global economy; do tailor-made solutions exist or does only one formula exist for all; how can developing countries use trade policies for structural reform or for boosting exports; what tools can be used to foster exports of higher value finished goods instead of low-value commodity exports; how can countries rise up in the global value chain; what policies can encourage the creation of innovative products; and what is the future of the WTO?

A range of plenary and working sessions, workshops and book launches took place during the three-day event to discuss some of these questions. Plenary session addressed: making trade work more inclusively; and making trade work for business. Working sessions and workshops addressed, inter alia: supply chains and labor standards; industrial policies and WTO rules; intellectual property rights in trade; reducing trade costs; consumer protection and world trade; the role Special Economic Zones play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); reforming agriculture trade rules for food security purposes and protecting the rights of smallholder producers; illicit trade; fisheries subsidies; fossil-fuel subsidies; boosting trade for people in Africa; climate and energy matters in free trade agreements; leveraging services for inclusive and sustainable development; trade through innovative partnerships for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda; trade, competitiveness and global governance; jobs in global value chains; digital trade; and creating employment in a globalized world.

Since the Public Forum was established in 2001, more than 9,000 representatives from NGOs, civil society, academia, business the media, governments, parliamentarians and inter-governmental organizations have attended the event. [WTO Public Forum Website]