Experts Discuss the World Trade Organization’s Slow Transition to a Digital Platform

As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the world, the success of many businesses and organizations has depended upon their ability to quickly adapt to this new digital landscape. Internet shopping has boomed, many restaurants have changed to online ordering and delivery only, and even the U.S. Congress has convened digitally. The World Trade Organization (WTO) too is moving towards digital platform, however its transition has been notably slow. In a recent webinar from the Washington International Trade Association (WITA), a team of experts discussed why the WTO has been delayed in its digital response, how this has impacted its effectiveness, and what the organization can do to remedy this as the world faces several more months of digital dependence.

As unemployment continues to grow, Congress is looking to incentives people to go back to work and the likelihood of extending the extra money received for unemployment is slim. Some ideas include bonuses for people who go back to work in the next couple months.

The new relief bill will also include liability protection for business to help protect them as they begin to open back up. While there are not a lot of specifics of what the liability protection would look like, small businesses around the country have expressed the need to protect their businesses in the case of a covid-19 outbreak. This will also include state and local aid support to help with the funds lost as a result of the virus.
While the rest of the year is expected to see a slowdown in workload for congress as many are hesitant to return to Washington, there is some talk that congress will issue a response to China. Congress is expected to use their mark-up schedule as a vehicle for possible sanctions or a rebuttal to China in response to the crisis Covid-19 has caused. Aside from coronavirus related bills, the rest of the year will is expected to go to the federal budget and appropriations.

The webinar can be found at: https://fiscalnote.com/webinars/on-demand-second-half-check-in-where-does-congress-go-from-here.