On 14 October 2025, the Friends of Multilateralism Group (FMG) organized the 13th session of its “Trade Policy Preview” (TP-P) brainstorming series on Australia. Willy Alfaro, FMG member and e former Director of Trade Polices Review Division at the WTO moderated this session.

 

Simon Evenett, FMG member and Founder of Global Trade Alert; George Riddell, Managing Director at Goyder Ltd., a trade consultancy, and Allie Renison, Director for Advocacy at the global consultancy SEC Newgate in its UK arm shared their views on the trade policies of Australia.

 

Over 30 participants joined the session, including members of FMG, Ambassadors/DPRs of WTO members, and experts from renowned think tanks etc.

 

FMG has launched the brainstorming initiative titled “Trade Policy Preview” (TP-P) to host a candid and forward-looking dialogue on trade policy trends of key players of the WTO and their implications on the WTO reform discussions. FMG has successfully organized 13 TP-P sessions on China, Russia, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil, U.S.A, Japan, EU, SACU, China, Nigeria, Australia and the UK.

 

Recording of this session could be watched via: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coGBGK_HDAQ

 

Annex 1: Program

14:00-14:02 Opening Remarks

Speaker: Clemens Boonekamp (FMG)

14:02-14:05 Introduction

Speaker: Willy Alfaro (FMG)

14:05-15:05 Presentations

Moderator: Willy Alfaro (FMG)

14:05-14:25 Speaker: Simon Evenett (FMG)

14:25-14:45 Speaker: George Riddell (Goyder Ltd)

14:45-15:05 Speaker: Allie Renison (SEC Newgate)

15:05- 15:30 Discussions

Moderator: Willy Alfaro (FMG)

 

 

Annex 2: List of participants

1. FMG/FFMG

Clemens Boonekamp (FMG)

Willy Alfaro (FMG)

Simon Evenett (FMG)

Maria Pagan (FMG)

Janet Njambi Macharia (FMG)

Rajesh Aggarwal (FMG)

Hamid Mamdouh (FMG)

Jonathan Fried (FMG)

Alejandro Jara (FMG)

Mia Mikic (FMG)

Sherry Stephenson (FMG)

Ben Shepherd (FMG)

John Weekes (FMG)

Luz Maria de la Mora (FFMG)

 

2. Missions

Slovak: Judita Brzobohatá, Ambassador

Brazil: Jose Antonio Braga, Minister Counsellor

Brazil: Thiago Carneiro, Counsellor

Sinapore: Peter Drage, Research Officer

Ghana: Sampson Abankwa, Minister Counsellor

Australia: Jessica Dickerson, Counsellor

Japan: Mai Yaguchi, Counsellor

EU: Hene Leht-Blight, Trade Officer

Czech: Monika Ededy Müllerová, Third Secretary

 

3. WTO

Karsten Steinfatt, Chief, Europe and Middle East, TPRD

Mark Koulen, Senior researcher

Hang Tran, Counselor

 

4. Other International Organizations

Adam Jakubik, IMF

 

5. Universities

Jing Wang, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

 

6. Others

George Riddell, Director, Goyder Ltd

Allie Renison, Director, SEC Newgate