Government of Azerbaijan officials witness the negotiation during the WTO Twelfth Ministerial Conference in Geneva
Between 12 and 16 June 2022, Ministers of the 164 countries members of the WTO, as well as senior officials from several countries in accession such as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, participated in a crucial meeting for the multilateral trading system. After the 5 days of intense day and night work, Ministers adopted concrete measures to overcome several of the current trade challenges.
- In response to the looming food crisis, Ministers adopted a declaration on trade and food security, and a decision banning export restrictions on supplies to the World Food Programme.
- As a contribution to the WTO's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, a declaration on trade policy measures and a decision to simplify the compulsory licensing of COVID-19 vaccines in order to facilitate access to these vaccines were adopted.
- Ministers also adopted an agreement to prohibit harmful forms of fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing as well as illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. This is the first multilateral agreement at the WTO which directly links trade with sustainable development and represents an important contribution to the sustainability of the world's oceans.
- The moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions was also extended, which is an important multilateral framework condition for the development of digital trade.
Ministers also agreed to negotiate the reform of the WTO in order to improve the working of some of its main functions (negotiation, monitoring and implementation and dispute settlement).
In December 2021, the negotiations for a plurilateral agreement on services domestic regulation (SDR) had already been completed. During the Ministerial Conference, Georgia, the United Arab Emirates and an acceding country, Timor Leste, indicated that they joined the SDR plurilateral initiative. Statements relating other plurilateral negotiations have been issued during the Ministerial Conference. One of the statements indicated that an E-Commerce Capacity Building Framework has been set up to bring together a wide range of technical assistance and capacity building efforts to support countries participating in the E-Commerce negotiations. In turn, the coordinator of the informal working group on Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) presented the achievements of the Informal Group, including the adoption of non-binding recommendations and declarations and the launch of the Trade4MSMEs Platform. Finally, the initiatives on trade and environmental sustainability continue working in different directions.
WTO Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said in her closing statement:
“The package of agreements you have reached will make a difference to the lives of people around the world. The outcomes demonstrate that the WTO is, in fact, capable of responding to the emergencies of our time. They show the world that WTO members can come together, across geopolitical fault lines, to address problems of the global commons, and to reinforce and reinvigorate this institution. They give us cause to hope that strategic cooperation will be able to exist alongside growing strategic competition.”
Marius Bordalba, team leader of the EU-funded Trade Policy Project:
“Ministerial Conferences are excellent platforms to discuss various initiatives with like-minded WTO members and to conduct bilateral discussions at the highest level. As a matter of example, as a result of meetings held during the WTO Ministerial Conference, the EU and India agreed to relaunch their negotiations for the conclusion of a far-reaching bilateral free trade agreement. Another example: Switzerland, Costa Rica, Fiji, Iceland and Norway met in Geneva to take stock of their ongoing negotiations for a plurilateral Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS) and to issue instructions to its negotiating teams to complete those negotiations. Mindful of the unique opportunities that Ministerial Conferences afford to its participants, ministers and deputy ministers from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan were among the attendees.”
The EU-funded “Strengthening capacity of the Government of Azerbaijan in the WTO Accession negotiations and other trade related activities” project financed the participation of the three Azerbaijani Government officials to the WTO Ministerial Conference.
For more information on the results of the WTO Twelfth Ministerial Conference, see the WTO’s dedicated page: https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/minist_e/mc12_e/mc12_e.htm
