Let's talk trade by WTO

Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, delivered a thought-provoking Presidential Lecture on "Reinventing the global order" at the WTO in March 2022. In her speech, she explored how the rules-based trading system can be part of the solution to the major problems facing the world today. In her introductory remarks, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had this to say: "She is fearless. She speaks truth to power on issues like climate justice, vaccine inequity, sovereign debt and the unique vulnerabilities facing small economies. She makes Barbados punch above its weight."

Presidential Lecture Series with Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados: 

https://bit.ly/3XG3ZEj

Without rules and referees there would be no game. Each football match is policed by a cwho has full authority to enforce the law of the game. In multilateral trade, we have plenty of rules but no all-powerful referee to supervise them. The ultimate control on trade disputes remains with the WTO members themselves. In this episode of the Trade Goals podcast, Michael Roberts and Antonia Carzaniga look at how football and trade disputes arise and how they are resolved.

We talked to:

Philippe Senderos, Sporting Director of Servette FC, Geneva

Sean Cottrell, Founder and CEO of the sports law knowledge hub LawInSport

Carol Etter, Swiss Attorney-At-Law specialised in sports law and board member of FC Basel

Clarisse Morgan, Director of the WTO Rules Division

Valerie Hughes, Senior Counsel with law firm Bennett Jones, former Director of the WTO Legal Affairs and Appellate Body Divisions

Show notes

A world-famous football referee with a degree in economics

Pierluigi Collina (Wikipedia)

Peruvian and Chilean Football Associations file appeals with Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)

Media release by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on 30 September 2022

CAS ruling in the matter of the player Byron Castillo

Media release by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on 8 November 2022

Rules-based trade explained (video)

Video "Let's Talk Rules-Based Trade"

Learn more about the WTO dispute settlement mechanism

The WTO dispute settlement mechanism explained

Understanding the WTO: the agreements

Overview of WTO agreements

Laws of the Game 2021/2022

Download link to the Laws of the Game 2021/2022 from the FIFA website

Football video games are popular wherever people have access to the internet. The games are part of the much larger e-sports universe of competitive video gaming. In this episode of the Trade Goals podcast, Michael Roberts and Antonia Carzaniga explore how playing the beautiful game in a virtual format brings together the different strands of trade law dealing with merchandise goods, services, and intellectual property.

We talked to:

Chester King, Founder and CEO, British Esports Association, Vice President of the Board of the Global Esports Federation

Brendan Vickers, Adviser and Head, International Trade Policy, Commonwealth Secretariat, London

JJ Shaw, Senior Associate at the international law firm Lewis Silkin, London.

Special thanks to Melissa, Tamara, Tobias and Tosson and all the others who shared their video game experience with us during the "Futur en Tous Genres" day 2022, when children of staff members visited the WTO to get a better idea of the organization as a workplace.

The FIFAe Nations Cup 2022™

Brazil crowned world’s best FIFA esports nation

Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2022-2026

Report by consultants Price Waterhouse Coopers  

50 years of gaming history visualized

50 Years of Gaming History, by Revenue Stream (visualcapitalist.com)  

A short history of gaming (1970-2020)

50 Years Of Gaming History, By Revenue Stream (1970-2020) - Phil Davis (thestreet.com)

Lear more about the ITA agreement:

WTO | Information Technology Agreement

Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Policy

WIPO conversation on intellectual property (IP) and artificial intelligence (AI)  

Football fans' love of the game generates plenty of revenue. The major sources of income in football are merchandising, sponsoring and broadcasting rights. All of these rely on intellectual property (IP) rights. In this episode of the Trade Goals podcast, Wolf Meier-Ewert and Jana Borges cast light on how the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, also known as the TRIPS Agreement, enables players, clubs and football associations to monetize their IP through the sale of branded goods and broadcasting deals.

We talked to:

Loic Luscher, Media & Communications Manager, Servette FC, Geneva

Alex Kelham, Commercial and IP lawyer, Head of Sports Business Group at international law firm Lewis Silkin 

Víctor Umaña, CEO FIFA U20 World Cup Costa Rica.

Show notes:

View of Geneva from Mont Salève

The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS): The TRIPS Agreement explained

WIPO reference guide: Sports and Intellectual Property

Poster with Servette FC jerseys from 1890 (in French): Shop du Servette FC

Lewis Silkin sport business homepage: Lewis Silkin - Sports Business

The relative financial performance of the highest revenue generating clubs in world football: Deloitte Football Money League 2022

A football game is a service and the clubs that are organizing football matches are providing recreational services. International trade rules may apply when the players on the pitch come from different countries, when a club is foreign-owned, when matches are broadcast internationally or when fans travel abroad to watch their favourite teams play. In this episode of the "Trade Goals" podcast,  Markus Jelitto and Antonia Carzaniga explore how the WTO’s Services Agreement (the GATS) applies to the beautiful game.

We talked to:

Philippe Senderos, Sporting Director of Servette FC, Geneva

Raffaele Poli, Head of the Football Observatory at the International Centre for Sports Studies(CIES) in Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Carol Etter, a Swiss Attorney-At-Law specialised in sports law. Carol is also a board member of FC Basel

José Francisco Manssur, a Brazilian lawyer specialized in sports law

Fernando Roitman, Founder of CIES Sports Intelligence at the International Centre of Sport Studies (CIES) in Neuchâtel

Learn more about the WTO's Services Agreement (GATS):

The General Agreement on Trade in Services explained

WTO video about the GATS:

"Let's Talk Services Trade"

Statistical analysis of the football players’ labour market, the technical analysis of player performance and the scientific estimation of transfer values:

The Football Observatory

Facts and figures about global football:

FIFA Professional Football Report 2019

Deloitte Football Money League profiles the relative financial performance of the highest revenue generating clubs in world football:

Deloitte Football Money League 2022 | Deloitte UK" 

More about foreign investment in Brazilian football clubs:

Football corporations in Brazil (SAF): new perspectives for foreign investment in Brazilian football teams | International Bar Association (ibanet.org)

An incredible amount of work is needed to create a perfect football pitch. A lot of international trade  is involved, too. In this episode of the "Trade Goals" podcast, players rave about fast pitches, tournament organisers praise robust playing surfaces and seed industry representatives explain how international phytosanitary standards facilitate trade in turf. We will also touch upon the gender dimension of playing on the best possible pitch.

We talked to

Philippe Senderos, Sporting Director of Servette FC, Geneva

Pierre-Yves Bovigny, Maître d'enseignement HES, Institute of Landscape, Architecture, Construction and Territory (HEPIA), Geneva

Darrell Dziver, Vice President of Brett Young, Chair of the Forage and Turf Advisory Group for the International Seed Federation, Canada

Rose Souza Richards, Seed Health Manager, International Seed Federation, Switzerland

Carrie Serwetnyk, player with the Canada women's national soccer team 1986-1991, founder of "Equal Play FC"

Víctor Umaña, CEO FIFA U20 World Cup Costa Rica

Learn more about:

Sanitary and phytosanitary measures explained

Video "Let's talk Food Safety"

The natural-versus-artificial-pitches controversy at the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada

FIFA standard on pitches

Footballs are an indispensable item in the global value chain of the beautiful game.  Manufacturing, distributing and selling the balls is a complex international business.

It is difficult to pinpoint where in the world a ball is actually made because the sourcing of raw materials, the design and the production happen in different countries. But one thing is certain: WTO agreements play an important role in easing trade in footballs.

WTO experts Roy Santana, Michael Roberts and Úna Flanagan trace the global value chain of footballs from the Servette Football Club in Geneva via Herzogenaurach, Germany to Sialkot, Pakistan. Stopovers in Uganda and Uruguay show how international standards ease trade.

We talked to:

Philippe Senderos, Sporting Director of Servette FC, Geneva

Qasim Malik, Vice President of the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce, Pakistan

Nouman Butt, CEO of Capital Sports, Sialkot, Pakistan

Gerardo Cal, Guide at the Estadio Centenario Football Museum in Montevideo, Uruguay

Robbert de Kock, President and CEO of the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry, Switzerland

George Opiyo, TBT National Enquiry Point, Uganda National Bureau of Standards

Oliver Hundacker, Senior Director of product operations at Adidas, Germany

Special thanks to Arshad Nawaz, Intern at the WTO Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation (ITTC)

Links:

One match, two balls. The 1930 World Cup in Uruguay featured two footballs with different designs in the final match:

Photo of the ball team Argentina used in the first half of the final of the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay

Photo of the ball team Uruguay used in the second half of the final of the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay

About the famous Wembley goal — or “Hurst's overtime goal” — in the final of the 1966 World Cup between England and Germany:
England v Germany (1966): The Most Controversial World Cup Final 

Learn more about rules of origin:

Rules of origin explained

Learn more about Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT):

Technical barriers to trade explained

Video "Let's Talk Product Quality"

Learn more about tariffs:

Tariffs explained

Video "Let's Talk Tariffs"

There is probably no group of people who will talk with more passion and expertise about trade-related aspects of the game of football than soccer enthusiasts within the WTO.

In this first episode of "Trade Goals", we introduce a group of WTO pundits with deep knowledge in realms such as trade in goods, trade in services,  trade-related aspects of intellectual property and communications who talk about what football means to them, both personally and professionally. Throughout the podcast season, they will try to make sense of the global value chain of the beautiful game.

Setting the scene are Michael Roberts, Roy Santana, Antonia Carzaniga, Wolf Meier-Ewert, Jana Borges, Markus Jelitto, and Una Flanagan.

The figure about the size of the global football economy comes from FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who visited the WTO in September 2022.

Football and trade for development. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the Public Forum 2022