Inside Geneva : Can the WTO shape a fairer world economy?
Inside Geneva : Can the WTO shape a fairer world economy?
Inside Geneva is a podcast about global politics, humanitarian issues, and international aid, hosted by Imogen Foulkes.
Our colleague engages her guests in straight talk with people tackling the world’s challenges in Geneva, humanity’s global hub.
The Inside Geneva podcast is published biweekly and produced in partnership with The Graduate Institute.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Public Forum is underway in Geneva and its key theme is ‘re-globalisation’. Are we nervous of that word? Inside Geneva sat down with WTO officials to find out what it means.
“Trade has been a very powerful force for reducing between-country inequality. Since 1995, for example, since the foundation of the WTO, extreme poverty in the world has been reduced from 40% to 10%, because of growth in many countries that was also export-led,” says Ralph Ossa, WTO chief economist.
Many ordinary people think global trade makes them poorer. How can it benefit them?
“At the WTO, our members have gotten together and many of them have formed a working group on trade and gender to especially put the lens of women to trade policy and to see what more can be done so that they can take advantage of opportunities,” says Johanna Hill, WTO Deputy Director.
Learn from one another
The WTO doesn’t tell countries how to run their industries, but it does hope they can learn from one another.
“Perhaps one member might say, ‘Well, you know, supporting women in my country has really been a tremendous success. Because now we see higher growth rates, lower poverty rates and so on. Why don't you give it a try yourself?’” says Ossa.
Can global trade help us face global challenges?
“Nobody questions the importance of regulating to protect the environment or to protect health - everybody agrees on that. It’s the how that might be the question,” says Hill.
Host: Imogen Foulkes
Production assitant: Claire-Marie Germain
Distribution: Sara Pasino
Marketing: Xin Zhang
Photo : DG Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala welcomes 2025 cohort of WTO Young Professionals in Geneva (copyright WTO)
Discover and enrich the history of International Geneva
The WTO or the controversial defense of world trade
The WTO or the controversial defense of world trade. In Geneva since 1995, the World Trade Organization promotes open trade, which is once again threatened by protectionism.