As the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the 20th anniversary of China's entry into WTO, Hong Xiaodong, the former Director General of Department of WTO Affairs of Ministry of Commerce, was invited to give a lecture on "WTO negotiation agenda setting and the evolution of the promotion mechanism" in Conference Room 1115 of Scientific Research Building on the morning of April 29.

This lecture mainly discussed the changes in the WTO negotiation topics and the changes in driving force of negotiations. Director Hong first started the discussion by discussing on the issue of whether global trade liberalization can continue to function normally. He explained the reasons for the stagnation of WTO Doha Round negotiations and emergence of anti-globalization waves, which were mainly caused by the uneven distribution of interests and benefits.

Secondly, Director Hong emphatically introduced the core topics of this lecture, namely WTO trade issues and the promotion of negotiation topics. He detailed issues such as fisheries subsidies negotiations, environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) negotiations. Director Hong inspired the participants to think about new issues such as human free movement. At the same time, Director Hong also gave a detailed introduction to the latest issue of the WTO -- the exemption policy of intellectual property for COVID-19 vaccines. He analyzed the views of all parties, as well as the pros and cons of vaccine IP exemptions. Finally, he introduced the influence of political factors in trade negotiations, and emphasized that postgraduates should pay attention to the interests of all parties when analyzing trade negotiations.

Translator: JI Yan

Reviewer: LI Xiaofan