Trade and Sustainable Development Symposium: Full Schedule

The biennial Trade and Sustainable Development Symposium, organised by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and held alongside the WTO ministerial conference for over a decade, is the leading multi-stakeholder platform for intellectual enquiry and dialogue on sustainable development and the global trade and investment system. It acts as an inclusive platform outside of the WTO negotiating setting for sharing ideas, engaging in dialogue, and influencing trade policy negotiations. Drawing in participants from government, business and civil society, the Symposium helps to maintain and elaborate a global vision of sustainable development in trade and investment policymaking.

1:30pm GMT-03

360° Trade Facilitation: the private sector at the heart of the reform process

Limited Capacity full
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With the entry into force of the WTO’s landmark Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), governments are set to accomplish the vital task of transforming the TFA provisions into concrete reforms to be implemented nationally.

Effective engagement and contribution of the private sector is crucial to ensuring the success of trade facilitation and maximizing its impact on economic development and poverty reduction. The Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation is at the centre of such efforts.

What lessons can we learn from practical experiences of public-private collaboration around trade facilitation? What are the ways forward?

Two years on from the Alliance’s launch at MC10 in Nairobi, please join us for a discussion on lessons learned from its initial portfolio of projects in countries including Colombia, Vietnam, Kenya, Ghana and Sri Lanka. Practical experiences will be also shared from other participants and ways forward for further leveraging the private sector will be discussed.

Note: This session will be in the form of an interactive workshop with breakout table discussions without interpretation.

Watch this session on YouTube

Moderator

Philippe Isler

Director, Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation

Philippe Isler is the Director for the Global Alliance For Trade Facilitation and is based at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. The Global Alliance aims at incubating and delivering trade facilitation projects from the bottom up by leveraging on funding and expertise... Read More →

Speakers

John K. Bang

Head of Sustainability Strategy & Shared Value, A.P. Moller-Maersk

Virginia Brown

Director, Office of Trade and Regulatory Reform, USAID

Virginia Brown is the Director of the Office of Trade and Regulatory Reform at the United States Agency for International Development. Ms. Brown has over twenty years experience in customs, trade policy, and development. Prior to joining to USAID, she was the Director for... Read More →

Milena Budmirovic

Senior Technical Officer, World Customs Organization

Milena is a Senior Technical Officer in the Procedures and Facilitation Sub-Directorate of the World Customs Organization (WCO). Her responsibilities cover the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), including managing the WCO Working Group on the WTO TFA (TFAWG) and cooperation with... Read More →

Ralph Carter

Managing Director, Trade and International Affairs, Fedex Express

BS and JD, Univ. of Arkansas at Little Rock; LLM, American Univ. Worked in US Dept of State, as Special Asst. to the US Ambassador to the EU. 2001, joined FedEx, Brussels. Directed FedEx's government affairs activities with the European Commission, Parliament and Council, as well... Read More →

Ambassador K.S. Kumararatne

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the WTO

Olga Lucia Lozano

Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade, Colombia

Anthony Nyame-Baafi

Director for Multilateral, Regional and Bilateral Trade, Ghana

Alex Perkins

Senior Manager, International Government Affairs, FCA US LLC

Valerie Picard

Maria Teresa Pisani

International Organization, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Maria Teresa Pisani is an economist working at the Economic Cooperation and Trade Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. She is currently in charge of the programme on Sustainable Trade Policy and Outreach, which develops policies and standards to facilitate... Read More →

Steve Pope

VP Customs & Regulatory Affairs, Europe, DHL

Andreas Schaumayer

Deputy Head of Division, Trade and Development, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Germany

Dr. Andreas Schaumayer is deputy head of the trade division at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. He is a trained political scientist and holds a PhD in public administration from University of Constance.

Amgad Shehata

SVP Strategy & Public Affairs, UPS

WTO TFA ImplementationCross border goods tradeWomen empowered trade

Sacha Silva

Senior Trade for Development Policy Advisor, Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the United Nations

Dominik Ziller

Director-General for International Development Policy, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

Dominik Ziller heads the Directorate-General for International Development Policy at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. His responsibili¬ties include the European Union's development cooperation, the United Nations, the World Bank Group, the regional... Read More →

Wednesday December 13, 2017 1:30pm - 3:00pm GMT-03
Breakout Room 2 - Sarmiento

The Global Trade and Investment Architecture, Trade Facilitation 2.0