Trade ministers meet to lay groundwork for WTO ministerial conference

Davos: Trade ministers from various countries and WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala held a meeting here on Thursday to discuss key issues before the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference in March.

According to a statement from the Swiss government, which hosted the meeting, they discussed the role of the WTO in addressing global trade policy challenges.In particular, they discussed possible avenues for compromise on certain negotiating topics and priorities for WTO reform, issues that will be at the heart of the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Cameroon in March.

The informal ministerial meeting was held on the sidelines of the WEF Annual Meeting and was attended by 21 WTO ministers.

The discussions focused on finding possible compromises on issues where consensus was already close at hand, in the context of a frank and interactive dialogue between ministers. These include the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement and the moratorium on e-commerce, the Swiss government said.

The ministers offered political guidelines and exchanged views on reform priorities, which will be at the heart of the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference set to take place in Yaounde, Cameroon, at the end of March.These talks provided an opportunity to discuss and reaffirm the central role of the WTO in global trade, the statement said.In an international context marked by tensions and challenges to established rules, Switzerland reaffirmed its support for a rules-based multilateral trading system, which is a key pillar of its foreign trade policy.

“As an open economy that is closely integrated into global value chains, it depends on reliable rules to ensure stable and predictable trade. Switzerland will continue to promote a multilateral approach and support WTO reform in order to preserve rules-based international trade,” it said.