Washington DC – The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) today released “A Post-Bali Agenda for the WTO,” a new paper highlighting several key initiatives that the NFTC believes the World Trade Organization (WTO) should pursue and advance. Taken together, these initiatives would build on the momentum generated by the landmark agreement reached on trade facilitation, further enhance the WTO’s role in international trade policy and enable more inclusive access in the global marketplace.
“The progress made in Bali in December was significant because it showed that the WTO is a viable negotiating forum for modernizing global rules in the 21st century,” said NFTC Vice President for Global Trade Issues Jake Colvin. “The NFTC and its members are hopeful that the WTO can keep up the momentum from Bali and continue to make progress in improving trade flows among its member nations. This paper outlines how the WTO might advance a series of key U.S. business community priorities to ensure the organization remains the center of global trade policy.”
The paper calls on the WTO to:
“NFTC and its members remain strongly supportive of the WTO as the central international trade body, and are both mindful and appreciative of the various roles of the organization – monitoring, research, dispute settlement, capacity building, and negotiation – in promoting an open and rules-based trading system. While the Geneva-based system remains a far more effective and reliable arbiter of disputes than mechanisms established under bilateral or regional deals and the central organization for international trade, it is vital for the organization to maintain a healthy negotiating component as well,” the paper concludes.
Click here to read the full paper.
About the NFTC
Serving America’s International Businesses Since 1914 – The National Foreign Trade Council (www.nftc.org) is a leading business organization advocating an open, rules- based global trading system. Founded in 1914 by a broad-based group of American companies, the NFTC now serves hundreds of member companies through its offices in Washington and New York.
