Theme: Trade and Sustainable Development

Chair of the APPG on the UN Global Goals, Lord McConnell attended the Development Cooperation Forum at the UN HQ in New York 21-22 May 2018 with BGIPU support.  Having also attended previous meetings, he found that there continues to be a wide acceptance of the Global Goals and a willingness to talk about building national strategies and domestic capacity to deliver them.  But he sees insufficient progress on data collection, measuring results, and targeting resources requiring further attention and prioritisation.

An international gathering of MPs has called for renewed momentum to conclude international trade negotiations that foster sustainable development. The parliamentarians urged all WTO Members to show flexibility and the willingness to compromise in order to conclude this trade round that has already lasted too long.  Over 500 participants, including some 220 MPs from 56 countries, attended the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO from 9-10 December in Buenos Aires, which preceded the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference

The IPU and the European Parliament organized a session of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO (PCWTO) during the 2017 World Trade Organization (WTO) Public Forum on 26 September focussing on “Making trade fair: The contribution of parliaments”.  Participants discussed what concrete actions parliaments could take to make global trade more sustainable, in line with the SDGs, reversing mistrust of global trade and making sure that trade can help respond to major challenges such as poverty and climate change.