Wednesday, October 7, 2015

The WTO Chair Programme’s 5th Conference on “Trade Facilitation in the Arab Region” was organized by the University of Jordan and its School of Business in Amman on 7 October 2015. The conference was opened by Dr Zu’bi AL-Zu’bi, Dean of the Business School, Dr Taleb Awad Warrad, WTO Chair Holder, Dr Ekhleif Tarawneh, President of the University of Jordan, and Dr Hubert Escaith, the WTO’s Chief Statistician.
The conference focused principally on the importance of reducing trade costs to increase productivity and the role of trade facilitation in reducing these costs. A presentation on this topic was made by the WTO. The situation in the Arab region was analysed using research conducted by the University of Jordan. The analysis covered several topics, including comparing the multilateral WTO approach to non-tariff measures (NTMs) with the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA) agreement. The conference also provided the opportunity to shed light on other related topics, such as new opportunities in IT services and environmental concerns.