EU Trade Ministers met in Geneva on Sunday 12 June for the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which runs until 15 June. Russia’s presence in the WTO makes it difficult and sensitive to hold discussions about the war. However, the EU reiterated its support for Ukraine through various channels, while the mention of the war does not appear in the declarations to be adopted by consensus by the members at the end of the MC12.
“When I said that the road to delivery will be bumpy, that’s also one of the things I was thinking about. As you know, inevitably war in Ukraine impacted our work [...]This is a negotiating forum, we had to find ways to do so”, said WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the opening of MC12.
The EU hosted a side event in support of Ukraine at MC12 on 12 June. 57 WTO members including the EU and its member states then signed a joint statement expressing solidarity with Kyiv and addressing the consequences of the war on international trade: “We strongly condemn any actions targeting the means of supply, production, and transportation necessary for Ukraine to produce and export to the world, including agri-food products”, they say. The signatories undertake to support Ukraine in its export capacities. “We encourage WTO Members to do likewise in a manner commensurate with their capacity, including by facilitating the use of infrastructure or facilitating and simplifying customs procedures”.
The EU recently abolished all tariffs and tariff quotas on imports from Ukraine for one year (see EUROPE 12965/11). It has also drawn up an action plan to create ‘solidarity lanes’ to enable Ukraine to export its grain and import the goods it needs (see EUROPE 12951/4).
While the joint statement aims to take sides in the conflict and put the war on the agenda of the meeting, Russia is not directly named in the text signed by the 57 countries.
EU Member States were more explicit in their conclusions adopted at the beginning of the MC12 in which they accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine. The only changes made from the last version, which dates from November 2021, relate to the response to the war, including the need to address the issue of food security arising from the conflict. The details of the expected outcomes at the end of the Conference are almost unchanged in the text, including on the response to the Covid-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12841/18).
See the statement of the 57 WTO members: https://aeur.eu/f/22l
See the opening conclusions of the MC12: https://aeur.eu/f/22m (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)