The Value of the WTO (and the WTR)

To celebrate the 25th Anniversary Conference of the World Trade Review

Date: April 23, 2026

Time: 3-5pm

Venue: World Trade Organization, room E

Organized by the World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press &
Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the WTO and EFTA

The World Trade Review (WTR) celebrates its 25th Anniversary in 2026. As the journal started its journey in Geneva (in the WTO’s Centre William Rappard), the Board of the WTR in cooperation with the Swiss Mission are pleased to invite you for an event reflecting on the WTO and its “value” for both researchers and practitioners. 

The creation of the WTO represented not only an ambitious systemic evolution from the GATT period but also developed into a corner stone of the post Cold War order. This so-called “liberal trading order” has survived past periods of challenges and showed resilience. But today’s context raises important questions that scholars and experts need to reflect upon and that will shape the agenda of the field of trade policy in the decades ahead. 

The role of WTR in promoting the study of world trade makes the 25th anniversary of this journal the ideal time to reflect on past and current scholarship. The event organized will bring together various stakeholders to reflect on the challenges and opportunities of the trading system, the role of academic research and the interplay with diplomacy.

PROGRAM

15:00-15:30 Reflections by Dr Robert Staiger, Chief Economist, WTO on the Value of the WTO.

15.30-17.00 Panel Discussion

Participants
Prof Wolfgang Alschner, University of Ottawa
Ambassador Sumathi Balakrishnan, Malaysia
Ambassador Erwin Bolliger, Switzerland
Ambassador Nadia Theodore, Canada
Prof J. Alan Winters, Sussex University 
Chair: Prof Stephanie Rickard, LSE

17:00 Apéro (kindly sponsored by the Swiss Permanent Mission)

If you plan to attend onsite, please do send an e-mail to nadine.deangelis@unibe.ch to confirm, also indicating whether you need a visitor badge for the WTO until Friday, 17 April 2026.

For online participation, please register directly at this link.

Organizing Committee:
Wolfgang Alschner
Cédric Dupont
Manfred Elsig
Joseph Francois
Robert Koopman
Sooyeon Kim
Patrick Low
Miriam Manchin
Rebecca O’Rourke
Stephanie Rickard
Christian Volpe
Weihuan Zhou