The World Trade Forum initiative was launched at the third UN Conference on least Developed Countries in Brussels in 2001 by key global agencies, including the United Nations, UNCTAD, UNDP, World Trade Organization, Commonwealth Secretariat. Other organizations included the European Parliament and the Government of Canada. 

The Secretary-General’s report (A/58/319) to the General Assembly in 2003, recognized the World Trade Forum (WTF) as a key initiative that aims to foster “an inclusive global public-private partnership mechanism for promoting the Millennium Development Goals through trade.” The initiative was further welcomed by all the Member States of the United Nations through General Assembly resolution A/58/220 of 23 December 2003, that it recognized “… the urgent need to help to strengthen the capacities of the developing countries, especially the least developed countries, to participate in and benefit from globalization and liberalization processes.“

The resolution also welcomed “the initiatives being undertaken at the subregional, regional, interregional and global levels towards establishing public-private partnership mechanisms aiming to enhance and expand South-South cooperation in trade and investment, and in this context [noted] the initiatives of the World Trade Forum.”  These initiatives currently include: the World Tourism Marketing Summit, the World Summit of Young Entrepreneurs in the United Nations, The World Summit of Indigenous Entrepreneurs, and the World Summit on Technology Enterprises.

The WTF is a forum for discussion on trade related aspects of human development, particularly those that relate to and are affected by the current WTO agenda to promote rules based trade in a multilateral free trading system. There are several key interconnected initiatives that WTF has been created and launched to support.

To this end, the WTF has been launched as a platform to provide a forum to encourage productive choices by governments and enterprises so people of all nations will see the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) become a reality. In particular, the eighth MDG outlines creating a “global partnership for development’ and in doing so, achieving a consensus and aligning resources from industry, government, civil society. The WTF provides a supporting mechanism to achieve this goal, and in particular, address the following three key aspects of this goal area:

• Develop further an open trading and financial system that includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction — nationally and internationally;

• In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies — especially information and communications technologies;

• Address the least developed countries’ special needs.

The MDG’s provide a set of benchmarks for assessing human progress on a global scale. They represent the first time in history where all nations, developing and developed alike, have unanimously agreed on the key human progress and development priorities for the world. An unprecedented global compact engaging development agencies and private sector companies worldwide has been born to move progress forward and meet the challenges presented by the MDG’s. The WTF is recognized as a key mechanism to support and strengthen the goals of the compact and its commitment to partnerships and joint ventures so that prosperity and the benefits of globalization are shared.

In order for developing nations to benefit from globalization, equitable trade rules, capacity building and access to new markets are essential. This can only occur through increased dialogue and mutually beneficial knowledge sharing and relationship building through a dedicated platform. The WTF will aim to provide this platform for these activities to occur.

The WTF aims to put high priority issues related to implementing key recommendations of the WTO/DDA (Doha Development Agenda). It will especially seek to accelerate implementation of those recommendations that will arise from the 6^th ministerial Conference that is scheduled to take place in Hong Kong in December 2005.

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