The 2016 WTO Public Forum ended successfully on 9th September, in Geneva, Switzerland. The three-day forum included keynote speeches, book and report launches, parallel sessions, etc. The program was packed and featuring a variety of subjects. Being a global forum on the multilateral trading system and international trade, the forum itself attracted registrations from over 1,500 participants who came from a background in academia, business, media, government, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations around the world.

At the Forum, Prof. Xinquan Tu, Dean of China Institute of WTO Studies (CIWTO), participated as a guest speaker in the session “Inclusiveness in Global Trade Governance: What Does It Mean and How to Make It Work?” jointly organized by Bertelsmann Stiftung and IDEAS Centre Geneva. Tu delivered a keynote speech with respect to the impact of mega regional trade agreements that were recently established or under negotiation on global governance.

CIWTO, in collaboration with IDEAS Centre Geneva, hosted a session titled “Electronic Commerce and Participation of SMEs in World Trade” on September 28th, from 09:00 to 10:30, in Room S2 at the WTO Headquarter. Although it was the first session of the day, it still attracted nearly 100 audiences. Daniel Crosby, partner of King & Spalding, Marcos Vaena, official of the Department of Business and Institutional Aid of International Trade Commission, Xiankun Lu, senior researcher of IDEAS Centre Geneva, Torbjörn Fredriksson, Chief of ICT Analysis Section of the Division on Technology and Logistics at UNCTAD and Xinquan Tu, Dean of CIWTO delivered keynote speeches, respectively, on the topics of ways of assistance, new patterns and issues related to SMEs’ involvement in international trade and received very strong feedbacks.

  Participating in session organization at the WTO Public Forum is an important part of the implementation of our internationalization strategy and the development of a special think tank. It is the fourth time our institute successfully hosted a session at the WTO Public Forum since we submitted our first application in 2013. The occasion has given an opportunity to fully communicate recent academic views in the workshops and make our voice heard globally, but also release the latest research by our researchers more widely and enhance the international visibility. CIWTO will continue to focus on the impacts of major academic activities, seek the opportunities to cooperate with domestic and international think tanks and researchers, and firmly promote the works on the development of our special programs and think tanks.