Many of the new issues currently being discussed by trade experts as likely candidates for the multilateral negotiations 1 are actually not so new. Discussions on them began in the mid-1990s.
At the ministerial conference in Singapore in December 1996, four new issues—trade and investment, trade and competition policy, transparency in government procurement, and trade facilitation were introduced to the WTO agenda. They came to be known as the Singapore issues.
While three of the four Singapore issues were dropped in the 2004 July package, the fourth issue was sealed with the trade facilitation agreement at the Bali Ministerial Meeting in 2013.
