📅 08 December 2022
Bangkok, Thailand & Virtual
ESCAP is nearing the end of the year, the time when people are expected to balance the books in preparation to start a new year. 2022 has been the third year with the pandemic still very much present in many countries, but also the year of the return of inflation, rising poverty, wars, and a continued worsening of climate change impacts.
But what about international trade? On the positive side of the ledger, the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference finally took place last June and ended successfully with a Geneva Package of important results, including the multilateral agreement on fisheries subsidies after 2 decades of negotiations. Several regional trade agreements were signed or put in force. On the negative side of the ledger, several countries continued to engage in trade conflicts and even more resorted to using restrictive export and other trade measures. The use of trade policy for broad and non-trade objectives has started to become the new normal.
This session invites 3 speakers to provide their personal views on trade wins and misses in 2022 from the perspective of the EU, APEC, and developing economies. They are also asked to look ahead into 2023 and tell us what they wish for trade next year.