Mega-Regional Trade Agreements and their Impacts on Developing Countries and the Multilateral Trading Regime

This side event chaired by Ambassador Steffen Smidt, LDC Facilitator looked at the various ways through which the multilateral trading system has fostered development in the past and how the WTO can aid in achieving the goal of the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA), in particular what measures can be implemented to facilitate the LDCs in their transition for graduation. Only four countries have graduated out of the LDC category since it was established in 1971.