Activities: IPU Activities & Conferences

The Steering Comittee for the IPU Parliamentary Conference was held in Geneva on 25 September 2012. The meeting threw up some very interesting issues throughout the day including; Should the WTO continue? Should we continue to support Multilateralism? Was the proliferation of Institutions holding up trade liberalisation? Were the voices of the Business community too absent from the WTO? The ever changing nature of Trade. The Importance of Domestic Competition Laws. Has Global Co-operation Failed?

The most important words uttered at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness came from Lee Myung-bak, the President of the Republic of Korea. Fifty years ago when he was a child and Korea was a war ravaged country, it needed aid. Today it’s the 13th largest economy in the world, the second fastest growing economy in the OECD and an aid donor. That single statement confirms that despite the complexity of aid, despite the myriad cultures, despite the challenges that are presented from clean water to conflict to corruption, aid works.

The 183 member countries of the WTO were largely represented. The conference agenda was full with many working sessions competing in parallel and dealing with current trade challenges: ‘Made in the World’ labelling, the Arab Spring, the Doha Round and many other issues such as sustainable energy, food security and intellectual property rights