A seminar „Accession of the Republic of Serbia to the World Trade Organization“ was held on Monday, March 4th 2019. The seminar was organized by the The United Nations Club of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law under the Faculty’s patronage, in cooperation with the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, the Embassy of Switzerland in Serbia and the „IDEAS“ centre in Geneva, the sponsor of the event. The Conference hall of the Faculty of Law was filled with students who have been introduced to the complex process of admittance to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the manner of its internal functioning in multiple aspects. The Seminar was opened by Assistant Professor Dr Jelena Lepetić, Vice-Dean for international cooperation of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, Ms Ursula Läubli, director of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Serbia, who spoke about the support that the Swiss Confederation is providing to the Republic of Serbia in entering the WTO, and Sara Petrović, the president of the Club for United Nations of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, who also was the moderator of the seminar.

The first lecture on the topic of „WTO admittance – history, structure, current state“ was held by Ms Anna Varyanik, Legal Affairs Officer of the WTO Accession Division. The second lecture, from the perspective of the negotiating team of the Republic of Serbia for accession to the WTO, was held by Ms Olivera Jocić, the assistant to the Minister of trade, tourism and telecommunication, on the subject of „Negotiations of the Republic of Serbia for WTO accession – current state“. Ms Bojana Todorović, the former head of the negotiating team of Republic of Serbia for WTO accession has hald the third lecture on the subject of „Bilateral negotiations in the process of acceding to the WTO – examples from the practice of the negotiations of Republic of Serbia“. Then Ms Iva Drobnjak, a senior policy advisor of the „IDEAS“ centre from Geneva, shared her knowledge and experience with the students by speaking about the „Lessons learned from the practice of WTO admissions so far“. The Seminar was closed by the lecture of Assistant Professor Dr Marko Jovanović, from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, on the subject of „Legal implications of the process of WTO accessions“. After each lecture, the students had the opportunity to ask questions and, by doing so, start varied discussions regarding individual areas of the seminar.