Geneva, 6 June 2016
Office of the
Secretary General
Dear Madam President,
Dear Mr. President,
Over recent years, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has established a tradition of
holding annual public events where participants from government, parliament, civil
society, the business sector, academia and the media jointly reflect upon the
functioning of the multilateral trading system and analyse the state of advancement of
the Doha Development Agenda. The annual
WTO Public Forum
is now a significant
feature of the international calendar.
It has likewise become a tradition to hold special parliamentary sessions within the
overall organizational framework provided by WTO Public Forums. Such sessions are
geared towards the specific interests of members of parliament specializing in
international trade and are closely linked with the process known as the
Parliamentary
Conference on the WTO,
which is driven by the synergies of the IPU and the
European Parliament and constitutes a de facto parliamentary dimension of this inter-
governmental organization.
This year's WTO Public Forum will be held from 27 to 29 September, on WTO
premises in Geneva (Centre William Rappard), under the overall theme
Inclusive
Trade.
The Forum's programme is very rich and comprises over 40 events, including
a parliamentary session, which will take place on
Tuesday, 27 September 2016,
from 4 to 5.30 p.m.
The title of the parliamentary session is "How
can global value chains make trade
more inclusive? A legislative perspective".
Global value chains (GVCs) have
transformed the world trade and become an important feature of global production
patterns. Faced with insufficient data on the actual impact of this change on trade
policies, legislators seek to improve their understanding of what kind of trade policies
are required to ensure that GVCs serve the objectives of inclusive and sustainable
growth and the creation of decent jobs for both women and men. How can
parliaments contribute to ensuring the inclusiveness and sustainability of GVCs?
What tools do they have at their disposal to promote sustainable environmental and
social practices and policy frameworks? The objective of the session is to come up
with evidence-based proposals for ways of enhancing the efficiency of parliamentary
oversight of the international trading system in the era of GVCs and globally
networked economies. .
The parliamentary session to be held on 27 September is open to all participants duly
accredited to the Forum, subject to the limits of the room's seating capacity.
Interpretation into English, French and Spanish will be provided by the WTO
Secretariat. A detailed programme of the session will be posted shortly on the IPU
website at
http://www.ipu.org/splz-e/wto-forum16.htm.
./.