The Chairman of the General Council of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dacio Castillo (Honduras), briefed delegations on the work done and to be done in preparation for the 12th Ministerial Conference, to be held from 30 November to 3 December.
The General Council is responsible for preparing the document that the Ministers will adopt at their meeting.
After extensive consultations, Mr Castillo provided elements on the expectations of the members regarding the first part of the document. First, they want to see a clear context for the conference.
Specifically, they want to see the need for solidarity and collaboration among WTO members in the Covid-19 pandemic crisis and the role of international trade and the WTO in economic recovery.
Special attention should be paid to developing and least developed countries, they say.
The former Chairman of the General Council, David Walker (New Zealand), and current facilitator for the response to Covid-19 in the WTO reported that a large number of delegations wanted to mention export restrictions and bans in the document. For them, keeping markets open is fundamental.
Also in the area of trade and health, members recommend the establishment of a framework that could guide the WTO’s future work to “make the multilateral trading system more resilient and better prepared for such crises”.
The major issues that are expected to be accompanied by results at the 12th Ministerial Conference are still being hotly debated among WTO members. On fisheries subsidies, agriculture or trade and health, delegations have still not found a compromise to submit to the ministerial meeting. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)