In the News

December 12, 2008

At an informal meeting of delegation heads, Director-General Pascal Lamy recommends postponing a potential ministerial meeting until the New Year.  Talking point to his speech can be found here: http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news08_e/tnc_dg_12dec08_e.htm

November 9, 2008

Director General of the WTO speaks to the need for governments to restore domestic confidence in trade: http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl105_e.htm

October 17, 2008

Prime Minister Harper met with French president and current head of the EU, Nicolas Sarkozy to talk about the possibility of future Canada-EU trading agreements. According to the joint statement issued following the meeting, the two parties have agreed to work together to “define the scope of a deepened economic agreement and to establish the critical points for its successful conclusion”. Among the areas to be addressed by the agreement are intellectual property rights, energy and the environment, telecom services, labor mobility and science and technology,  There is hope that negotiations will begin as early as 2009 although skeptics believe that a conclusive agreement may take years to achieve.  The joint statement can be found at http://international.gc.ca/missions/eu-ue/summits_sommets/summit_quebec-2008_joint-declaration-eng.asp

September, 2008

The WTO is in the midst of organizing a symposium on Mode 4 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/mouvement_persons_e/sym_sept08_e/sym_sept08_e.htm