World Trade Organization
Intergovernmental trade organization
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| 2024 | The WTO identified an 'overall lack of transparency' in the Chinese government's financial subsidies for key industrial sectors. |
| February 26 2024 | At the 13th Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi, Comoros and Timor Leste are approved as the 165th and 166th WTO members, respectively. |
| February 26 2024 | Thirteenth Ministerial Conference (MC13) held in Abu Dhabi, UAE from February 26-29, and extended to March 1 to complete deliberations. |
| 2023 | The World Trade Organization (WTO) consolidated budget for 2023 totaled 195,500,000 Swiss Francs (CHF), with contributions from the top 10 members led by the United States (11.667%) and China (10.758%). |
| 2022 | The Eighth Global Review was held, continuing the long-standing effort to support trade capacity in developing countries. |
| June 12 2022 | Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12) was held in Geneva, Switzerland from June 12-17. |
| 2021 | Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala began her term as WTO Director-General, which is set to expire on 31 August 2025. |
| February 15 2021 | WTO General Council unanimously selected Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria as the seventh Director-General, making history as the first woman and first African to hold this position. |
| November 7 2020 | Final selection of the new WTO Director-General was originally expected, involving eight candidates and requiring consensus from 164 member countries. |
| October 28 2020 | US representative opposed the appointment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as WTO Director-General, despite strong consensus among other member countries. |
| June 2020 | Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12) originally planned for Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| May 2020 | Director-General Roberto Azevedo announced his resignation, planning to step down on 31 August 2020. |
| March 2020 | The European Union and 15 other WTO members established the Multiparty Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA), creating an alternative appellate mechanism to address trade disputes while the Appellate Body remains non-functional. |
| 2019 | The Seventh Global Review further assessed the progress and impact of the Aid for Trade initiative. |
| 2019 | Boris Johnson adopts the Article 24 strategy during his campaign to lead the Conservative Party, proposing it as a potential solution for Brexit trade negotiations. |
| 2019 | The Donald Trump administration blocked appointments to the WTO Appellate Body, rendering it unable to enforce WTO rules and punish trade rule violations. |
| 2018 | Aid for Trade commitments remained stable at $58 billion. South and Central Asia received the highest share at 31.4%, followed by sub-Saharan Africa at 29.2%. Lower-middle-income countries received 37.5% of aid, with least developed countries receiving 36.8%. |
| 2017 | The Sixth Global Review maintained the program's focus on supporting developing countries' trade capabilities. |
| 2017 | Global total value of Aid for Trade disbursements exceeded USD 43 billion, with an additional USD 15 billion committed. This milestone was recorded in the United Nations tracking of Aid for Trade support. |
| 2017 | A study published in the Journal of International Economic Law revealed that nearly all recent preferential trade agreements (PTAs) reference the WTO extensively, with substantial portions of treaty language copied verbatim from WTO agreements. |
| June 2016 | United Kingdom votes to withdraw from the European Union, sparking discussions about using GATT Article 24 to maintain trading conditions |
| 2015 | The Fifth Global Review continued the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the Aid for Trade initiative. |
| 2015 | United Nations General Assembly established the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which included Goal 8 addressing 'decent work and economic growth' and specifically targeting increased Aid for Trade support for developing countries. |
| 2015 | Kazakhstan is approved for WTO membership after a long negotiation process beginning in 1996. |
| 2013 | The Fourth Global Review was conducted under the theme 'Connecting to Value Chains', exploring how Aid for Trade can help countries integrate into global economic networks. |
| 2013 | Roberto Azevêdo from Brazil becomes Director-General of the World Trade Organization, succeeding Pascal Lamy. |
| December 2013 | The Bali Package, the biggest agreement within the WTO, was signed. |
| 2012 | The United States, European Union, and Japan filed a case against China in the World Trade Organization regarding China's rare earth export restrictions. The WTO ruled against China, determining that its export controls were not justifiable. |
| 2012 | Montenegro became a member of the World Trade Organization. |
| August 24 2012 | The WTO welcomes Vanuatu as its 157th member. |
| August 22 2012 | Russia officially becomes a WTO member, concluding its 19-year accession journey. |
| 2011 | The Third Global Review took place with the theme 'Showing Results', focusing on demonstrating the concrete impacts of the Aid for Trade initiative. |
| December 2011 | Russia is approved for WTO membership after a long negotiation process. |
| October 26 2011 | The General Council formally approves the Accession Package of Vanuatu. |
| May 2 2011 | The re-convened Working Party for Vanuatu completes its mandate. |
| April 4 2011 | The Working Party on the Accession of Vanuatu is reconvened informally to discuss Vanuatu's future WTO membership. |
| 2010 | Armenia underwent its first WTO membership review, which highlighted its economic recovery from the 2008 global financial crisis and demonstrated steady economic growth. |
| May 4 2010 | The WTO General Council agreed to establish a working party to examine Syria's request for WTO membership. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles China and the World Trade Organization, World Trade Organization, Aid for Trade & General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.