GENEVA, Switzerland, Sept 9, 2024 (BSS) - The largest outreach event of the 
World Trade Organization (WTO) will start tomorrow at the multilateral trade 
organisation's secretariat in the Swiss city of Geneva.

Under the theme of 'Re-globalization: Better Trade for a Better World,' this 
year's forum will explore how re-globalization can help make trade more 
inclusive and ensure that its benefits reach more people. 

In particular, the forum will delve into how green policies, services, and 
digitalisation can contribute to this objective.

The sub-themes of the forum are green policies to maximise the benefits of 
trade, services trade to build progress and enhance welfare and 
digitalisation as a catalyst for inclusive trade.

The public forum will feature 139 sessions from September 10-13. Sessions are 
organised by WTO member governments, businesses, non-governmental 
organisations, academia and international organisations with many sessions 
livestreamed on the WTO website.

The forum will kick-off with the launch of the World Trade Report, which this 
year will explore the complex interlinkages between trade and inclusiveness 
across and within economies.

The forum will also feature a lecture by Jason Furman, Aetna Professor of the 
Practice of Economic Policy at Harvard University and former Chairman of the 
Council of Economic Advisers during Barack Obama's tenure as President of the 
United States.

Following his presentation, Professor Furman will have a fireside chat with 
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, giving participants the opportunity to 
witness a candid exchange on the potential of re-globalization at a time of 
geopolitical uncertainty.

Several interactive activities will be organised throughout the forum, 
including an immersive exhibition by the International Trade Centre (ITC) to 
celebrate their 60th anniversary.

Representatives from civil society, academia, business, government, 
international organizations and the media have already arrived in Geneva to 
participate in the forum. 

The organisers have set up a packed schedule, anticipating a hectic week 
ahead.

Talking to BSS, Barkat Ullah Maruf, director-partnerships and development 
communication, COAST Foundation, said that the public forum offers an 
opportunity to gather views, opinions and analyses from different 
stakeholders in global trade.

"In a sense, it is an agenda-shaping exercise for the ministerial conference 
which is the highest decision-making event of the organisation," he added.

Maruf will attend the forum as a moderator at a panel on "Trade rules for 
supporting small-scale farming as contributors to green trade in agriculture: 
Which way forward?"

Maruf, however, said challenges posed by climate change and environmental 
degradation have become a persistent determinant of the global agricultural 
production and trade system.
 
Small farmers, across the developing and developed world, including 
Bangladesh, have been at the heart of this discourse, he mentioned.

He informed that the farmers have been major contributors to sustainability 
but have suffered most from the effects of climate change and environmental 
devastation. 

At the same time, their engagement in global trade has been rather limited 
and precarious, made more vulnerable by global price volatility and an 
uncertain global market, he added.

Barkat Ullah Maruf said the forum will also explore how small farmers can be 
better integrated into the global production and trading system, how they can 
contribute more and benefit from greener production and trading systems, how 
the WTO as an institution and its Membership can cater to their needs, and 
how trade policy outside the realm of the WTO can be synergised to better 
deliver on both sustainability and food security.