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Geneva,30th of September 2015 -The WTO Public Forum opened its doors today with over  1,500 representatives from global unions including UNI Global Union, ITUC, PSI and ITF, civil society, academia, business, the media, governments, parliamentarians and inter-governmental organizations.

The first plenary debate entitled “Making trade work more inclusively” was opened by Roberto Azevêdo, the Director General of the WTO and Lilianne Ploumen, the Minister of Trade for the Netherlands. The panelists Amina Mohamed (Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Kenya) and Anabel Gonzàlez (World Bank) recognized that trade had not succeeded in its attempt to lift people out of poverty. However there was no indication of a clear path towards restoring the missing links between trade, inclusive growth and poverty reduction.

For Sharan Burrow, the General Secretary of ITUC, “we need a new business model. We cannot let free trade agreements dilute workers’ rights. Today, according to the ILO, there are 21 million workers who are reduced to a state of slavery. Their dream is to be able to refuse forced overtime without fear. Labour is not a commodity. We need strong legislations to secure human rights, collective bargaining rights, minimum wages and social protection floors.”

UNI Global Union and ITUC are working together to stop the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) which would jeopardize the ability of governments to regulate as well as workers's rights in the services sectors. TiSA will be discussed again in Geneva during the second week of October.