About WTO
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) came into force on 1 January 1995 and is based in Geneva. More than 150 nations are members. The WTO’s top decision making body is the Ministerial Conference, which is normally held every two years. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.
At the request of Consumers International, the WTO facilitated a session with consumers groups to allow the participants to discuss consumers' priorities as they relate to global trade and hear an update about the work that is being done at the WTO. It will be the first session organized solely for consumer organizations under our 'Trade Dialogues' series.
INVOLVEMENT OF MALAYSIA CONSUMER GROUP IN THE TRADE DIALOGUE
From Malaysia Consumer Group, represented by Ms Shabana Naseer
The meeting was held on 6-5-2019 at WTO office, Geneva, Switzerland. Upon arriving at the office, the delegates were required to register and collect their ID before they can enter the highly secured building. The delegates were ushered by WTO staff to the meeting room (Room B) for the morning session.
The meeting started with a brief introduction by the Director General of WTO, Mr Roberto Azevedo. In his speech he cited the importance of consumer’s voice to be heard especially in this critical moment where trade tensions are rising. A brief introduction and citing the importance of consumer’s concerns was later made by the Consumer International Director General, Ms Helena Leurent and Ms Sunanta Kangvalkulkij, the General Council Chair.
Sessions begun after the address note were made by the key persons and members were given the opportunity to voice their concerns and opinions directly to their trade negotiators during the Consumer Trade Dialogue `to ensure an international agreement on cross border e-commerce that protects consumers.
My point of views includes;
• To provide better protection to the Malaysian consumers who buys products outside of Malaysia. ie : To have a representative in each countries to tackle issues experience with the respective country(ies)
• Shared issues experienced by Malaysians such as the: Luxstyle case . number of cases NCCC have received and the challenges we faced solving the cases
• The importance of inter government cooperation to handle dispute
• A proper redress mechanism for consumers
• Issue of product safety and Data Protection
Members/Participants:
• Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs (BEUC) - Brussels
• Consumer Awareness Organization - Nigeria
• Consumers International - UK
• Consumers Japan - Japan
• Consumers New Zealand - New Zealand
• CUTS International - Geneva office
• eBay - USA
• Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (FOMCA) - Malaysia
• Fundación Ambio - Costa Rica
• International Chamber of Commerce, Geneva
• Organización de Consumidores y Usuarios de Chile (ODECU) - Chile
• Proteste - Brazil
• Which? - UK
Second session started after our lunch break and the comments made during the 1st session was discussed again and presented to the Director General of WTO, Mr Roberto Azevedo. Right after the session ended, WTO conducted a short interview of me, to get feedback and opinion on the importance of having this trade dialogue.
Watch the video here;
https://twitter.com/wto/status/1128671598733557766
Visit our Facebook Page for more info.