WTO & Multilateral Affairs

WTO Building

USTR's WTO & Multilateral Affairs (WAMA) office has overall responsibility for trade negotiations and policy coordination regarding matters before the World Trade Organization (WTO), including the Doha Development Agenda negotiations. 

Specific responsibilities include the operation of various WTO committees, including those established for subject areas such as subsidies, anti-dumping and other trade remedies, import licensing procedures, standards and technical barriers to trade, government procurement, customs/trade facilitation & security matters, WTO Accessions, WTO Trade Policy Reviews, and preferential trade arrangements. 

WAMA staff is also often responsible for these issues where they are specifically addressed in individual FTAs. The office has the lead with regard to WTO accessions, and is also responsible for trade policy coordination and negotiations in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Geneva Ministerial Conference

The Eighth Session of the WTO Ministerial Conference is being held in Geneva, Switzerland, from December 15-17, 2011. The themes for discussion shall be: “Importance of the Multilateral Trading System and the WTO”, “Trade and Development” and “Doha Development Agenda”.

The WTO has posted press releases and documents related to the ministerial conference at their website.

Links to information on Press and NGO accreditation are also available through the WTO website.

Efforts Against Protectionism

As President Obama and Ambassador Kirk continue to speak out on the importance of resisting protectionism during the global economic crisis, USTR, in coordination with other agencies, has been monitoring and responding to trade-related measures taken by other nations in response to the financial downturn.

This interagency monitoring effort helps directly inform the global monitoring effort at the WTO. As part of this global monitoring effort, the WTO issues reports on protectionism and convenes a meeting on the issue at least once a quarter.

The latest WTO report, issued to WTO Members on July 1, was discussed on July 13, 2009 during a meeting of the WTO Trade Policy Review Board (TPRB). Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier made this statement at the meeting.