On 11 March, the Friends of Multilateralism Group (FMG) organized a webinar on Webinar on the decision-making of the WTO. Victor Do Prado, FMG member and former former Director of Council and Trade Negotiations Committee at the WTO moderated this session.
Jean Pierre Baptiste, Ambassador of Chad to the WTO; Erwin Bollinger, Ambassador of Switzerland to the WTO; Senthil Pandian, Ambassador of India to the WTO; Yihong Li, DPR of China to the WTO shared their views on the decision-making of the WTO. Hamid Mamdouh, FMG Board member and former Director of the Trade in Services and Investment Division of the WTO shared his comments as discussant.
The background readings for this sessions include the followings:
- Preserving the Current Practice of Consensus-Based Decision-Making in the WTO(Communication From Samoa on behalf of the African, Caribbean And Pacific Group )
- Responsible Consensus(Communication From Brunei Darussalam, Costa Rica; The Gambia; Korea, Republic Of; Norway; Peru; Singapore; Switzerland; Separate Customs, Territory Of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen And Matsu)
- Revisiting the Marrakesh Agreement to Improve WTO Decision-Making: A Pareto ImprovementPerspective (RD/GC/31)
Over 70 participants joined the session, including members of FMG, Ambassadors/DPRs of WTO members, and experts from renowned think tanks etc.
Recording of this session could be watched via: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7BrdwX1r2A
Annex 1: Programme
14:00-14:02 Opening Remarks
Speaker: Xiankun Lu (FMG)
14:02-14:05 Introduction
Speaker: Victor Do Prado (FMG)
14:05-14:50 Presentations
Moderator: Victor Do Prado (FMG)
14:05-14:10 Speaker 1: Jean Pierre Baptiste (Ambassador of Chad)
14:10-14:15 Speaker 2: Erwin Bollinger(Ambassador of Switzerland )
14:15-14:20 Speaker 3: Senthil Pandian (Ambassador of India)
14:20-14:25 Speaker 4: Li Yihong (DPR of China)
14:25-14:30 Discussant: Hamid Mamdouh (FMG)
14:30- 15:30 Discussions
Moderator: Victor Do Prado (FMG)
Annex 2: List of participants
I.FMG/FFMG
Xiankun Lu (FMG)
Victor Do Prado (FMG)
Hamid Mamdouh (FMG)
Rajesh Aggarwal (FMG)
Willy Alfaro (FMG)
Hilda Al-Hinai (FMG)
Mercedes Araoz (FMG)
Clemens Boonekamp (FMG)
Deborah Elms (FMG)
Jonathan Fried (FMG)
Henry Gao (FMG)
Alejandro Jara (FMG)
Wenhua Ji (FMG)
Siqi Li (FMG)
Mario Matus (FMG)
Brad McDonald (FMG)
Janet Macharia (FMG)
Michitaka Nakatomi (FMG)
Rosine Plank (FMG)
Mohammad Saeed (FMG)
Sherry Stephenson (FMG)
Hector R Torres (FMG)
John Weekes (FMG)
Alan Wolff (FMG)
II.WTO Missions
Chad: Baptiste Jean Pierre, Ambassador
Switzerland: Erwin Bollinger, Ambassador
India: Senthil Pandian, Ambassador
China: Yihong Li, DPR
Pakistan: Ali Sarfraz Hussain, Ambassador
Romania: Andrei RuSu, Ambassador
Sri Lanka: RGS Wijesekara, Ambassador
Slovak Republic: Judita Brzobohatá, Ambassador
HK SAR: Winky So, Permanent Representative
Cabo Verde: Carla Miranda, DPR
Australia: Jeremy Green, DPR
Singapore: Seow Chen Seah, DPR
Japan: Norifumi Kondo, DPR
New Zealand: James Andersen, DPR
Slovenia: Špela Kučan, DPR
Norway: Håvard Hugås, DPR
The Netherlands: Audrey Goosen, DPR
Egypt: Ahmed Maghawry Diab, Minister Plenipotentiary
Russia: Oleg Savelev,Counsellor
III.WTO Secretariat
Gabrielle Marceau, WTO Legal Affairs Division
IV.Think Tanks
William Reinsch, CSIS
V.International Organizations
Valerie Picard, ICC
Iasson Chryssikos, World Bank
Adam Jakubik, IMF
VI.Universities
Xueping Li, Wuhan University
Robert Wolfe, Queen’s University
VII.Others
Werner Zdouc, former WTO Director
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