Qatar Chamber joins WTO global trade forum

Qatar Chamber (QC), in close cooperation with global trade agencies, including the the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and WTO World Trade Organization (WTO), has been working for years to facilitate international trade to achieve the objectives in line with Sustainable Development Goals and World Trade Agenda, a senior official of QC told the audience at event in Switzerland.

QC and ICC-Qatar as part of their efforts in facilitating and strengthening trade around the world, participated in this year’s WTO Public Forum entitled “Trade: Behind the Headlines” held in Geneva recently.

The Forum provided a platform for engagement and deliberation on how trade and the WTO can contribute to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals, how the benefits of trade can be shared more widely among countries, businesses and individuals and how best to tackle the challenges of the changing trade landscape.

The event was attended by a Qatar Chamber and ICC-Qatar delegation headed by Sheikha Tamader Al Thani, Director of International Relations and Chambers Affairs at QC.

The session entitled “Building for success: A world trade agenda for the Buenos Aires Ministerial,” was organised on the third and last day of the Forum under the World Trade Agenda (WTA), a joint initiative by ICC and Qatar Chamber, which mobilises global business to help governments set key multilateral trade negotiation priorities to ease trade facilitation and contribute to economic growth and job creation. The session presented the newly launched WTA report under the same name which discusses the urgent needs for more liberalisation and better rules in global trade including what WTO Members should focus on in the period before and after the upcoming WTO Ministerial Conference, taking place in Buenos Aires, Argentina in December 2017.

Sheikha Tamader said: “Qatar Chamber was keen to participate at the WTO Public Forum through the World Trade Agenda Initiative, due to the importance of this conference in charting the needed directions to facilitate world trade”, adding that QC has already launched, in cooperation with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the World Trade Agenda (WTA) initiative, which seeks to assist governments in identifying priority fields in trade, and that, last March, it launched the WTA “Building for Success” report, which included several key proposals that can contribute to strengthening trade around the world”. 

Sheikha Tamader stressed that “Qatar Chamber is, since the Doha Negotiation Round held in Doha in 2001, exerting great efforts in order to facilitate international trade”. Doha succeeded at the time in hosting this prestigious international meeting. 

She also praised the close cooperation between Qatar Chamber and the ICC, which resulted in several initiatives, including the World Trade Agenda initiative, whose recommendations contributed to the conclusion of a historic treaty to facilitate world trade at Bali, Indonesia, in 2013.

Sheikha Tamader pointed that Doha will host, next year, the World Trade Agenda Day, to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing business leaders, and to evaluate the role of the private sector in suggesting concrete proposals to that end. “Building for Success” argues that the WTO Members should respond to current challenges with renewed action, deploying better defences against protectionism and crafting actions that would have a meaningful impact on trade and economic growth—especially in the area of digital trade policy. 

Source:-Thepeninsulaqatar.com