00-3620 ENDPRESS RELEASE
PRESS/190
14 September 2000
WTO launches live broadcast to Latin America
The WTO Secretariat, in collaboration with Mexico's Monterrey Institute of Technology and
Higher Studies, has launched a cycle of videoconferences broadcast live by satellite from Geneva to
university centres in Latin America. Each videoconference features a WTO expert who will speak on
trade subjects such as trade in services and dispute settlement, followed by a question-and-answer
session.
WTO Director-General Mike Moore said the project highlights "our efforts to reach out to the
public using every accessible modern technology, including the Internet". He noted that the
organization is already keeping trade communities, es pecially in least-developed countries, up-to-date
on WTO activities through its website (www.wto.org) and electronic mail.
The WTO videoconference cycle uses the Monterrey Institute's Virtual University Network,
which has local centres in leading academic institutions in Latin America, including in Mexico, Chile,Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama, Peru, El Salvador and Venezuela.
WTO Deputy Director-General Miguel Rodrig uez opened the videoconference cycle on 30
August 2000. This inaugural broadcast, on "Basic Principles and General Overview of the WTO", was
followed by more than 500 students, businessmen and trade officials in Mexico alone. It was alsobroadcast to other Latin American countries.
The next WTO videoconference will be held on 20 September 2000 with focus on trade in
goods, including the WTO agreements on agriculture and on textiles. Other WTO subjects to be
featured through 22 November 2000 are dispute settlement, trade in services, trade and environmentand trade-related aspects of intellectual property.
The videoconferences take place on selected Wednesdays from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Mexico time
(5:00-6:30 p.m. Geneva time). The full programme is available on the website
(http://www.ruv. itesm.mx/programas/uve) of the Monterrey Institute (Instituto Tecnológico y de
Estudios Superiores de Monterrey or ITESM).