{"id":93071,"date":"2018-06-21T08:59:52","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T08:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=12d5ea4ff854dfd529ee409502df6bba"},"modified":"2018-06-21T08:59:52","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T08:59:52","slug":"press-release-uk-trade-secretary-visits-wto-to-push-support-for-free-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=93071","title":{"rendered":"Press release: UK Trade Secretary visits WTO to push support for free trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox will travel to the World Trade Organization (<abbr title=\"World Trade Organization\">WTO<\/abbr>) in Geneva today (Thursday, 21 June) to call on the organisation to re-focus on its free trade agenda.<\/p>\n<p>While there, Dr Fox will meet with a number of <abbr title=\"World Trade Organization\">WTO<\/abbr> Ambassadors. He will lead a panel discussion on global trade leadership alongside the head of the World Intellectual Property Organization (<abbr title=\"World Intellectual Property Organization\">WIPO<\/abbr>) and an Executive Director at the International Trade Centre, which works to spread the benefits of free trade to developing economies.<\/p>\n<p>In both of these forums Dr Fox will discuss recent global trade disputes and call for <abbr title=\"World Trade Organization\">WTO<\/abbr> members to work together more effectively in order to tackle these issues and support free trade and the multilateral trading system globally.<\/p>\n<p>This follows a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/speeches\/international-trade-benefits-us-all-and-we-should-respect-its-rules\">speech he made earlier this week at the Centre for Policy Studies<\/a> where he called on China to open its markets and ensure compliance with global trade rules, as well as better global enforcement of intellectual property rules.<\/p>\n<p>He will also reiterate the importance of reforming global trade rules for the modern age, focusing on e-commerce to make it easier to trade online, ensuring that the <abbr title=\"World Trade Organization\">WTO<\/abbr> is not left behind by businesses and consumers and that trade continues to grow.<\/p>\n<p>International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Organisations like the <abbr title=\"World Trade Organization\">WTO<\/abbr> and <abbr title=\"World Intellectual Property Organization\">WIPO<\/abbr> are at the heart of the global trade system that has helped lift millions out of abject poverty and supports countless jobs in the UK and around the world.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">With free trade and multilateralism under threat, the UK will stand as a leading supporter of its benefits and as the head of Britain\u2019s international economic department I\u2019ll be in Geneva making that case to other countries today.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The visit comes after the <abbr title=\"World Trade Organization\">WTO<\/abbr> forecast global trade growth of 4.4% this year, and the UK itself saw exports increase 7.4% to \u00a3625.4 billion to the end of April 2018 compared to the same time last year.<\/p>\n<p>The meetings also come as the UK prepares to take its independent seat at the <abbr title=\"World Trade Organization\">WTO<\/abbr>, outside the EU, and so Dr Fox will use this opportunity to reassure <abbr title=\"World Trade Organization\">WTO<\/abbr> trade ambassador\u2019s that the UK is committed to maintain existing trade arrangements immediately after leaving the EU in order to avoid disruption.<\/p>\n<p>But, long-term, once the UK leaves the EU we will be able to negotiate and sign new trade agreements, join existing agreements around the world, and more freely access fast-growing markets beyond the EU.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Fox will look to explore the opportunities that this future could unlock, meeting with ambassadors from the US, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liam Fox will meet with global trade leaders to make the case for its benefits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}