Relevance and Future of the WTO: From Seattle 1999 to COVID Deadlock 2021

During a session of the 2021 WTO Public Forum organized by Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, IATP's Executive Director Sophia Murphy will participate as an expert speaker. 

What

Expert speakers from academia and civil society will explore how WTO rules recently have hampered the fight against COVID-19 after decades of WTO-directed hyper-globalization resulted in a lack of resilience in supply chains and production capacity in rich and poor nations. At a time when the WTO’s disfunction is on full display (via a derailed dispute settlement system, efforts to bend the rules to negotiate rump plurilaterals, and continued hurdles to global supply of COVID-19 vaccine and medicines), it is imperative to realize a new model that — instead of exacerbating insecurity, inequality and instability — facilitates the improvement of the livelihoods, health and wellbeing of all people around the world and the long-term survival of the planet.

Who 

• Jane Kelsey, Professor of Law, University of Auckland
• Sophia Murphy, Executive Director of Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
• James Thuo Gathii, Wing-Tat Lee Chair in International Law and Professor of Law, Loyola University
• Moderator: Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch

When

• Tuesday, September 28, 2021
• Time: 16:35-17:35 CET (9:35 a.m. CT. See your time zone here.)

Register for the public event before September. Register here.