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More than 1.500 trade experts from the private sector as well as officials met in Geneva from 26 – 28 September 2017 for this year’s WTO Public Forum. B20 Argentina Chairman Daniel Funes de Rioja, B20 Germany Sherpa Stormy-Annika Mildner, and ICC Secretary General John Danilovich used this opportunity to discuss with WTO Director General Roberto Azevêdo the future of the trade and the multilateral trade regime. All agreed to continue the close cooperation between business and the WTO and the so called Business Focus Groups in order to feed in the business expertise into the WTO process. The WTO Director General confirmed that the recommendation of the Business Focus Groups and B20 Germany, e.g. on e-commerce, SME’s as well as trade in services and investment facilitation, contributed positively to the debate among members in the run-up to the 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11) in December 2017 in Buenos Aires.
At a working session of the WTO Public Forum titled “Open and Inclusive Trade – a Progressive Trade Agenda for the benefit of all” jointly organized by B20 Germany and Argentina, the G20 and its impact on global trade stood at the heart of the discussions. Ambassador Walter Hugo Werner, Head, WTO Unit, Permanent Mission of Germany in Geneva, emphasised that the G20 leaders were able to agree on a joint outcome on trade and investment at the G20 Summit in Hamburg –a great success, having in mind the opposing views of participants in the preparation phase.
Shunko Rojas, Undersecretary of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Production, Argentine Republic, presented his ideas regarding the Argentinian presidency, among them a new focus on agriculture and food and education and labour.
Press-release at the German B20 presidency official web-site