E15 Conversation on Global Trade and Investment Architecture

Host: Jonathan Fried, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the WTO

The work programme of the E15 theme on Global Trade & Investment Architecture was launched on 22 June 2015 at a working dinner hosted by Jonathan Fried at the Official Canadian Residence in Geneva. WTO Ambassadors and various representatives of inter-governmental organisations, such as WIPO and UNCTAD, and academia attended the dinner. The conversation was led by theme Convener Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, Chief Executive of ICTSD and Principal Convener of the E15Initiative. Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, Theme Leader of the Global Trade & Investment Architecture theme and Senior Researcher for the Global Economic Governance Programme at the University of Oxford, presented her draft paper, which provided an overview of the topic. The participants, moderated by Jonathan Fried, then discussed her presentation.

This was the first of many expert conversations that will be organised by ICTSD and the World Economic Forum as part of the E15Initiative to develop policy options on the future of the global trade and investment architecture in 2015 and 2016.