AW-Curriculum: The Multilateral World Trade System – Future of the WTO

The Federal Ministry of Labor and Economy, the Research Centre International Economics and the Federal Academy of Administration invite to the seminar

W4 (2024): The Multilateral World Trade System – Future of the WTO

Lecturer: Univ. Ass. MMag. Dr.iur. Ralph Janik, LL.M. (SFU / University of Vienna / AUB)

Topics:

1. The world trading system through the ages

• Historical overview: from the Havana Charter to the WTO
• Presentation of today’s WTO
  − Members
  − Organisational structure
  − Agreements concluded

2. Positive developments vs. structural problems of the WTO

• Size of the WTO and diversity of member states’ interests
• Agriculture: Tension between food safety and distortion of competition
• Trade in services as an area of conflict between the global North and South
• WTO negotiation mode: Single Undertaking or „nothing is considered agreed until everything is agreed“
• Modern free trade agreements and the fragmentation of the global trading system
  – an alternative to the WTO?

3. Current negotiating points and the future of the WTO

• Current negotiations (e.g. fisheries, vaccines) and interactions with structural problems
• Is the WTO (in its existing form) obsolete?
• In which areas is there a need for reform to solve the structural challenges?

The webinar is part of the Foreign Trade and Investment Curriculum 2023/24. More information about the Foreign Trade Curriculum.