Following the relative success of the 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO and with the next one due to take place in February 2024, pessimism has increased about the future of the rule-based trading system. The argument has been made that rules of the WTO are no longer relevant in a world of geopolitical competition or in light of the urgency of the climate transition.
This talk will discuss what can be the role of WTO as a guardrail against the risks of fragmentation of the global economy and as a forum for rule-based cooperation to respond to global challenges. It will discuss the elements of a reform agenda that encompasses the role of WTO as a forum for negotiations, deliberation and dispute resolution.
The talk will argue that such an agenda should be seen from a medium-term perspective but that the next Ministerial Conference is an important opportunity to put WTO reform on the right track.
Meet the speakers and chair
Ignacio Garcia Bercero is Director in charge of Multilateral Affairs, Strategy and economic Analysis at DG Trade in the European Commission.
David Henig is one of the UK’s leading authorities on international trade policy, he is Director of the UK Trade Policy Project at the think-tank European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), where he well examines the economic and trade implications of Brexit as well as major global trade developments particularly between the major powers. He writes about all these topics in a regular column for specialist trade news service Borderlex, serves as Expert Adviser to the UK Trade and Business Commission and House of Lords International Agreements Committee, and speaks regularly to the media. Until March 2018 he worked for the UK Government including for three years on Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks between US and EU.
Marianne Schneider-Petsinger is a senior research fellow in the Global Economy and Finance Programme at Chatham House, and project lead for the Global Trade Policy Forum.
Julius Sen is an Associate Director and Senior Programme Advisor at LSE Enterprise, the commercial arm of the London School of Economics and Political Science which organises customised executive education programmes and consultancy projects on behalf of the School.
He has extensive experience in policy making and implementation in government, together with his academic and analytical expertise in trade, regulation, competitiveness, and economic policy related issues. Much of his current work is associated with assessing political, regulatory, strategic and other types of risk that both governments and the private sector are concerned about
More information about the event
This event is hosted by LSE IDEAS
Event hashtags: #LSETradeReform
LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. Through sustained engagement with policymakers and opinion-formers, IDEAS provides a forum that informs policy debate and connects academic research with the practice of diplomacy and strategy.