On 17th August 2023, FMG has held the Annual Board Meeting which was moderated by Patrick Low, Co-Chair of the Board and former Chief Economist of WTO. And on 23rd August, FMG has held the General Assembly 2023, moderated by Alejandro Jara, Co-Chair of the Board and former Deputy Director-General of WTO.
At the two meetings, FMG Board and FMG members have discussed on the new members and new Friends of FMG, FMG activities and the participation of FMG community in FMG activities in the last reporting period (July 2022-July 2023), the appointment of the CEO, the planned sessions for the rest of 2023, among other issues.
18 FMG members have participated in the GA.
Annex 1: List of Participants at the GA
1.Clemens Boonekamp
2.Daniel Crosby
3.Jonathan Fried
4.Henry Gao
5.Stuart Harbinson
6.Alejandro Jara
7.Patrick Low
8.Xiankun Lu
9.Cecilia Malmström
10.Hamid Mamdouh
11.Petros-Constantinos Mavroidis
12.Maxim Medvedkov
13.Mia Mikic
14.Victor do Prado
15.Cristián Rodríguez-Chiffelle
16.Sherry Stephenson
17.John Weekes
18.Alan Wolff
Annex 2: Agenda of Board Meeting
- Confirm new FMG and FFMG members
- Appointment of the CEO
- Approve the Minutes of the previous General Assembly;
- Approve the Board’s Annual Activity Report
- Planned Sessions for the rest of 2023
- Annual Report on the Participation of FMG Community in FMG Activities (July 2022-July 2023)
- Follow-up on the issue of bank account of FMG.
- Other business
Annex 3: Agenda of GA
- Confirm new FMG and FFMG members
- Appointment of the CEO
- Approve the Minutes of the previous General Assembly;
- Approve the Board’s Annual Activity Report
- Planned Sessions for the rest of 2023
- Annual Report on the Participation of FMG Community in FMG Activities (July 2022-July 2023)
- Follow-up on the issue of bank account of FMG.
- Other business
Annex 4: FMG Activity Report from July 2022-July 2023
- Activity report July 2022-July 2023
From July 2022 to July 2023, FMG continued to adopt the form of virtual or hybrid meetings and has (co-)organized altogether 24 activities covering a wide range of issues, including:
1.Brainstorming sessions (the “Soft Power” of DSB, Trade and Climate Change, SPS and WTO Reform, Investment Facilitation for Development, Integration of MSMEs within the MTS, Fisheries Subsidies Negotiations, How to Address the Subsidies Challenge to the Trading system, Developmental Dimension of WTO Reform, What Can We Learn from MPIA for DSU Reform, the paper “Trading with Friends in Uncertain Times”, WTO Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement);
2.Internal briefings or discussions (MC12, the future of MTS and future work of FMG, Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform, Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade, New Updates of the JSI on E-commerce and the Next Steps, the report “Reimagining the TPP: Revisions that Could Facilitate U.S. Reentry”, New Book of Henry Gao and Weihuan Zhou);
3.Dialogue with Ambassadors on Post-MC12 Priority;
4.Trade Policy Preview (TP-P) Sessions (Mexico, Brazil, US, Japan, and EU);
5.2022 WTO Public Forum Session: A Sustainable and Inclusive WTO: Course Correction or Course Continuation? (Other than this, FMG/FFMG members also actively participated in a total of 16 sessions at 2022 WTO Public Forum)
List of all FMG activities in the reporting period
1)July 22nd 2022 | FMG Online Discussion on MC12, the Future of MTS and Future Work of FMG
2)September 19th 2022 | FMG Internal Dialogue with Ambassadors titled “Post-MC12 Priority”
3)September 22nd 2022 | FMG “Trade Policy Preview” (TP-P) Session on Mexico
4)September 30th 2022 | 2022 WTO Public Forum Session: A Sustainable and Inclusive WTO: Course Correction or Course Continuation?
5)October 4th 2022 | FMG Online Brainstorming on the “Soft Power” of DSB
6)October 17th 2022 | FMG Briefing on Trade and Climate Change
7)October 21st 2022 | FMG Online Brainstorming on SPS and WTO Reform
8)October 28th 2022 | FMG Online Brainstorming on Investment Facilitation for Development
9)November 4th 2022 | FMG “Trade Policy Preview” (TP-P) Session on Brazil
10)November 17th 2022 | FMG Online Brainstorming on “Integration of MSMEs within the MTS”
11)December 5th 2022 | FMG “Trade Policy Preview” (TP-P) Session on U.S.A.
12)December 7th 2022 | FMG Internal Briefing on Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform (FFSR)
13)January 26th 2023 | FMG Online Brainstorming on “Next Steps for Fisheries Subsidies Negotiations: Implementation and Further Negotiations”
14)February 21st 2023 | FMG “Trade Policy Preview” (TP-P) Session on Japan
15)March 1st 2023 | FMG Internal Briefing on the Report “Reimagining the TPP: Revisions that Could Facilitate U.S. Reentry”
16)March 23rd 2023 | FMG Online Brainstorming on “How to Address the Subsidies Challenge to the Trading System”
17)April 10th 2023 | FMG Internal Briefing on the New Book of Henry Gao and Weihuan Zhou
18)April 21st 2023 | FMG Internal Briefing on Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade
19)April 25th 2023 | FMG Online Brainstorming on Developmental Dimension of WTO Reform
20)May 15th 2023 | FMG Internal Briefing on the New Updates of the JSI on E-commerce and the Next Steps
21)May 30th 2023 | FMG “Trade Policy Preview” (TP-P) Session on EU
22)June 21st 2023 | FMG Online Brainstorming on “What Can We Learn from MPIA for DSU Reform”
23)July 13th 2023 | FMG Online Brainstorming on the paper “Trading with Friends in Uncertain Times”
24)July 27th 2023 | FMG Online Brainstorming on WTO Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement
III. New FMG Members and new FFMGs
This year, the following 10 persons become FMG members (in alphabetic order of family name):
Henry GAO, Jianzhong HUANG, Masamichi KONO, Siqi Li, Fernando de MATEO, Petros C. MAVROIDIS, Brad MCDONALD, Michitaka NAKATOMI, Cristián RODRÍGUEZ-CHIFFELLE, Colette VAN DER VEN
The following 3 persons become new Friends of FMG (FFMGs) (in alphabetic order of family name):
Anabel GONZÁLEZ (WTO), Niall MEAGHER (ACWL), Michele RUTA (IMF)
- Participation of FMG Community
This year, the average number of participants in the FMG virtual sessions is around 50, ranging from nearly 30 on the low end to over 80 on the high end.
- Publications of Members and FFMG (reposted)
1.September 2022 | Alan Wolff | Reform of the World Trade Organization
2.September 2022 | Peter Draper | The Future of EU Trade Policy and Strategies in a Militarised Environment
3.September 2022 | Sherry Stephenson & Mia Mikic | Services to Support the Movement of Essential Goods: Background Paper on Logistics Services
4.October 2022 | Hector Torres | The IMF and the WTO Need Symmetrical Reforms
5.October 2022 | Victor Do Prado | Recommendations on Foreign Trade Policy
6.November 2022 | Bernard Hoekman | Geopolitical Competition, Globalization and WTO Reform
7.November 2022 | Xiankun Lu | The World Trade Organization Needs To Prepare Better For Future Pandemics
8.November 2022 | Simon Evenett | Will the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act “Hoover up” European Investment?
9.December 2022 | Bernard Hoekman & Petros C. Mavroidis | Investment facilitation in the WTO: The case for early harvesting
10.December 2022 | Bernard Hoekman & Petros C. Mavroidis | Managing Externalities in the WTO: The Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies
11.December 2022 | Sherry Stephenson & Mia Mikic | The importance of Essential Services to Supply Chain Connectivity and Resilience
12.December 2022 | Mia Mikic | Asian Century and Post-Pandemic Adjustments
13.December 2022 | Wendy Cutler | Reimagining the TPP: Revisions that Could Facilitate U.S. Reentry
14.January 2023 | Alan Wolff | In a fragmented world, we can’t take global trade for granted
15.February 2023 | Alan Wolff | America’s global leadership is being undercut by US economic policies
16.February 2023 | Patrick Low | Lao People’s Democratic Republic: A Retrospective on 10 Years of WTO Membership
17.February 2023 | Hector Torres | Advocates for friendshoring have not reckoned with digital trade
18.February 2023 | Peter Ungphakorn | Experts: India, S.Africa unlikely to succeed in blocking WTO services deal
19.February 2023 | Peter Ungphakorn | Belief in the multilateral trade system is eroding, and that spells trouble
20.February 2023 | Hamid Mamdouh | Implementing the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement
21.February 2023 | Bernard Hoekman & Petros C. Mavroidis | Reassessing the Safeguards Mess
22.March 2023 | Alan Wolff | The world trading system needs a more assertive European Union
23.March 2023 | Alan Wolff | The four horsemen of the apocalypse at the WTO
24.April 2023 | Colette VAN DER VEN | Exploring the interface between unilateral and bilateral approaches to greening EU trade
25.April 2023 | Alan Wolff | The US path toward security depends on economic integration with like-minded countries
26.May 2023 | Alan Wolff | Can the World Trade Organization be saved? Should it?
27.May 2023 | Alan Wolff | Saving the WTO from the national security exception
28.June 2023| Mia Mikic & Sherry Stephenson | Supply Chain Resilience, Friend-shoring, and the Pursuit of Non-Economic Objectives
29.June 2023 | Alan Wolff | Discarding a Utopian Vision for a World Divided – The Effect of Geopolitical Rivalry on the World Trading System
30.July 2023 | Hector Torres | It’s right China and India should demand a bigger IMF role
31.July 2023 | Simon Evenett | Revisiting the China–Japan Rare Earths dispute of 2010
32.July 2023 | Alan Wolff | What’s Happening to the International Trading System? Shared Interests of the US and Japan in the Outcome
33.July 2023 | Peter Ungphakorn | WTO investment facilitation text completed but still faces uphill battle
34.July 2023 | Alan Wolff | Revitalizing the World Trading System
35.July 2023 | James X. Zhan | We’re entering a new era for sustainable investment. Here’s why
- Publicity
1.FMG activities are regularly shared via FMG official website, LinkedIn, and WeChat.
2.Brainstorming Sessions are recorded and shared via the above social channels and through YouTube FMG.
3.FMG and FFMG members are also encouraged to helping with publicity by using their FMG/FFMG titles, logos and sharing FMG activities and publications.
4.FMG has circulated 5 newsletters for July-September 2022, October-December 2022, January-February 2023, March-April 2023 and May-July 2023 respectively.
Recent Comments