Trade officials, technology leaders and policymakers will meet in Geneva on 14 September for the World Trade Organization’s first World Trade and Tech Day, focused on the opportunities and risks created by artificial intelligence.
The event, titled “AI and Trade: Turning Potential into Progress,” will examine how governments can use AI to lower trade costs and widen participation while managing unequal access, labour disruption and uneven distribution of economic gains.
AI moves onto the trade-policy agenda
WTO projections cited for the meeting suggest that artificial intelligence could lift global GDP by 13 per cent and international trade by as much as 37 per cent by 2040 if adoption barriers and distributional risks are addressed.
The programme includes a ministerial discussion on why AI has become a trade-policy issue, conversations with private-sector leaders and panels covering developing economies, services, intellectual property, technical standards and digital trade.
A central concern is whether smaller businesses and lower-income economies can enter AI-related value chains rather than becoming only consumers of technology developed elsewhere. Participants will also examine how standards and cross-border cooperation can support innovation without creating new barriers.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is scheduled to deliver the welcome address. Case studies and a pitching session will show practical uses of AI in international commerce, alongside an exhibition and options for online participation.