On Thursday 24 January State Secretary Hagen participated in a meeting on WTO reform chaired by Canada. The meeting was a follow-up of a previous meeting on WTO reform, which took place in Ottawa, Canada in October 2018. As part of the group’s further work, Norway will coordinate efforts on the development dimension of WTO reform.
The next morning State Secretary Hagen took part in an informal meeting on the WTO e-commerce initiative. Australia, Japan and Singapore hosted this meeting. 76 WTO Members, which account for 90% of global trade, issued a joint statement confirming their intention to commence WTO negotiations on trade-related aspects of e-commerce.
On Friday 25 January the State Secretary also attended an informal WTO ministerial gathering hosted by Switzerland. The gathering provided a useful opportunity for important discussions among a representative group of WTO members.
The attendee is available here, and the closing remarks by the Swiss Chair can be found here.
The texts of the joint communiqué and the joint statement on e-commerce can be accessed through this link.