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| Senior WTO official to address World Textile Summit Rufus H. Yerxa, Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is to join the eminent speaker panel at the World Textile Summit, in Barcelona, Spain, on September 21, 2011. Mr Yerxa, who has an extensive record as a trade diplomat, legislative expert and private lawyer, has held his WTO position since 2002. Before that he served as a senior US trade official in both Republican and Democratic administrations and, from 1989 to 1993, was the US Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in Geneva, the predecessor organisation to the WTO. From 1993 to 1995 he was the Deputy US Trade Representative in Washington, when he played a major role in negotiating and securing Congressional approval of both the Uruguay Round/WTO agreement and the NAFTA accord. At the Summit Mr Yerxa will provide insights into the current structure of international textile-trade relations and on the ongoing Doha round of WTO trade negotiations. Completing the Summit panel will be Daniel Lopez, secretary to the board and deputy general manager at Spanish retail star Mango, who will illuminate product development and supply-chain management principles in the evolving world of fast fashion. Keynote speakers at the World Textile Summit are Kofi Annan, the former United Nations Secretary General, and Barry J. Eichengreen, Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley. Mr Annan will appear in his role as an advocate for the UN Global Compact on ethical practice, to which several major textile companies are signatories, while Prof Eichengreen will address the world's industrial future after the economic crisis of recent years. The morning and afternoon sessions will each conclude with an open panel discussion, involving the principal speakers and other textile-industry opinion formers. The first will have the theme: 'Surviving a brave new world: how to be a winner in the competitive struggle for textile markets'; and the second: 'Trade and investment: textile industry prospects for the world's major economies' The ITMA-ITMF World Textile Summit will take place on September 21 at the Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I in Barcelona, one day ahead of the opening of the ITMA 2011 textilemachinery show in the same city. write your comments about the article :: © 2011 Exhibition News :: home page |