WTO Forum Looks At 21st Century Trade Challenges

By Rachel Marusak Hermann for Intellectual Property Watch

The theme of this year’s World Trade Organization Public Forum, to be held at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva from 19-21 September, is “Seeking Answers to Global Trade Challenges.” Recognizing the widening gap between existing trade rules and the realities of the 21st century, the forum focus is on ensuring that WTO policy keeps pace with today’s fast changing world.

Topics range from food security and natural resources to value-added trade and what’s next for the multilateral trading system. Questions, strategies and challenges surrounding intellectual property will take centre stage during several sessions including: Averting the coming treatment crisis in a changing intellectual property landscape; The post-TRIPS world; A new trade barrier: blocking the free flow of information; Strategies for promoting green innovation and disseminating environmentally friendly technologies; and a Proposal for a WTO agreement on the supply of knowledge as a public good.

Find the complete WTO Public Forum 2011 programme here.