2021 WTO Public Forum: Final Report
The Public Forum is the largest outreach event of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The annual week-long conference features a diversity of sessions organized by participants from government, civil society, academia, business, international organizations and more. Taking place on 28 September - 1 October 2021, this year’s theme "Trade Beyond COVID-19: Building Resilience" examined the effects of the pandemic on trade and how the multilateral trading system can help build resilience to COVID-19 and future crises. Its three sub-themes were 1) enhancing resilience beyond COVID-19, 2) strengthening the multilateral trading system, and 3) collective action towards sustainable trade.
As an active participant in the rules-based liberal international order, Canada has a strong stake in the thematic focus of this year’s Public Forum. Throughout the YDC delegation’s stakeholder meetings with leading trade practitioners and experts, a resounding theme was the importance of Canada’s constructive engagement in international trade. From preferential trade agreements to WTO reform, Canada has and continues to forge an innovative and advocating role in the world trading system, endeavoring to improve the system itself and Canada’s bilateral, plurilateral, and multilateral trade relations.
Since its involvement as one of the founding Contracting Parties of the GATT (the predecessor to the WTO), Canada has been a forward-leaning Member of the WTO to date. As the founder and facilitator of the Ottawa Group, Canada is at the forefront of ministerial-level efforts to revitalize and modernize the WTO system. In response to the Appellate Body impasse, Canada joined the European Union and other Members in forming the multi-party interim appeal arrangement in 2020. More recently, during the pandemic, Canada cooperated with like-minded countries to collectively agree to refrain from imposing trade restrictions on essential goods such as agri-food.
Examples of Canada’s contributions to international trade send a clear message: a robust global recovery that “builds back better” from the pandemic is vital to the interests of Canadian businesses, workers, consumers, and beyond. Canada’s economy is inextricably linked to that of other jurisdictions, and such international linkages have a tangible, positive effect on Canadian livelihoods and communities. The ubiquitous impact of trade gives meaning to why the theme of the 2021 WTO Public Forum is timely and critical for everyday Canadians, informing the importance of engaging Canadian youth in this field of work.
With the aforementioned mandate, six young professionals - Jiya Hai, Oona Palmer, Lindsay Bain, Pierre-Alexandre Carrier, Ashton Mathias, and Angela Minyi Hou - were selected by Young Diplomats of Canada to form its delegation to the 2021 WTO Public Forum. The present report captures the main learnings of the delegation’s four-month experience, in hopes of generating momentum for further discussion among Canadian youth who have an emerging interest in contributing to the multilateral trading system.