World Trade Organization General Council March 2024: UK Statements
Statements by Simon Manley, the United Kingdom’s Permanent Representative to the WTO and UN. Delivered on 21 and 22 March 2024.
Agenda item 2 – Follow-Up to Outcomes of Ministerial Conferences: (I). Abu Dhabi (MC13)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Let me start as others have done by thanking you, the DG, the Chairs and, of course, our Emirati hosts for their very efficient and indeed, often lavish hospitality, falcons and all.
I’ve described - back to London - MC13 as a game of two halves, to capture a footballing metaphor. And it started, I think, on a real high. A fantastic weekend, full of real energy. We welcomed Timor Leste and Comoros to this organisation. We finalised Investment Facilitation for Development agreement - 126 Members of this organisation, 90 of them developing countries. We secured the entry-into-force of the Services Domestic Regulation - the first time a joint initiative has been implemented at this organisation. And we secured, as so many others have said this morning, a bigger and better development package than many of us could have hoped.
And ultimately, at the final hour, in fact the final minutes, we stepped back from the brink on E-Commerce. With much effort from the DG and our hosts and others. And by extending that moratorium, we ensured that this organisation did not lose its credibility on digital trade with global business.
But like others here, I have to say and be honest, beyond that, we were disappointed - we remain disappointed - with the overall outcome. Despite an enormous amount of work by so many people in this organisation, we did not manage, once again, to set ourselves on a path to agriculture reform. We could have agreed a landmark agreement that would have helped us address the alarming decline in fish stocks which are so vital to some of the world’s most vulnerable communities as so many others have said here today.
So there’s a lot of talk in this organisation about building consensus. But I have to say that MC13 often felt like an exercise in blocking consensus, not building it. What we need more of in this organisation is responsible consensus.
And as others have said, over the last few months it has felt that a handful of Members don’t seem to be motivated by the same sense of responsibility to each other, to this organisation, to our workers, to our consumers, to business or indeed to our oceans and our planet. That is a real problem which we do need to address as we look towards the future. And for that reason we very much welcome the suggestion from Singapore that we have a retreat to look at some of the lessons learned.
But we also have to pick ourselves up, as you set out at the beginning. We have to move ahead, build on what we did achieve, and what we came so close to achieving. Free and open trade is worth fighting for. Multilateralism is worth fighting for. This organisation is worth fighting for. And this delegation will be fighting for it.
Thank you.
Agenda item 3 – Work Programme on small economies. Report by the Chairperson on the dedicated session of the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD)
Chair, I would like to really welcome the work on CTD, and in particular, the work of this Chair. We welcome the Ministerial Declaration that we made in Abu Dhabi reaffirming the WTO’s work programme on small economies and we are absolutely 101% behind those efforts. We look forward to working with the CTD Dedicated sessions on small economies under the new leadership.
Thank you very much.
Agenda item 4 – Ministerial Instruction in Paragraph 3 of the Ministerial Decision on WTO Smooth Transition Support Measures in Favour of Countries Graduated from the LDC Category
Chair, I can say that I really welcome the positive step that we took at MC13.
It was great that we were able to come together on this issue. I want to pay tribute to all those who made that possible. We did it in a reasonably short space of time too. So, I think we can build on that success from MC13 and really get stuck into the remaining work of Annex 2 so that we can bring this exercise to a successful conclusion and ensure that the success that is graduating from LDC status can also be a success in terms of the wider economic development of the countries concerned.
Thank you very much.
Agenda item 5 – TRIPS For Development: Post-MC13 Work on TRIPS-Related Issues. Communication from Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, and India (WT/GC/W/925, IP/C/W/708)
Thank you very much Chair.
First of all, let me thank all the Members here who worked with us on the Tech Transfer text in the Ministerial outcome document both before and in Abu Dhabi. It was challenging but good to see it in the final document. We also look forward to continuing our discussions on the paper we have put forward on voluntary licencing and tech transfer. Both in the TRIPS Council and indeed in the working group on Trade and Technology Transfer. Which is the appropriate place to discuss our paper, and with respect, the paper that is before us. We have these technical committees; we need to make use of them. We look forward to a discussion of this paper in the TRIPS Council in the first instance.
Agenda item 6 – Moving Agriculture Negotiations Forward. Request from Brazil
Thank you very much Madame Chair. We have said some of it already yesterday as well under the first item.
We share the disappointment with so many in this room that we didn’t achieve more or actually very much at all on Agriculture at MC13. And I think that disappointment is all the stronger because I think we were so close. We had a text that most countries could agree with, more or less, and for that we owe an enormous debt of thanks to our Committee on Agriculture Special Session Chair.
Some people say that it is a thankless task but I think this morning shows he has thanks from all over the organisation, so I hope that gives him the strength and vitality and confidence to continue that vital role. Because this is a vital issue for this organisation.
And as we saw in Abu Dhabi, it is not an issue where it is helpful to have a kind of “take it or leave it” approach, trying to hold out against general convergence, nor is it going to be very helpful if we spend the next six months discussing how we are going to discuss or negotiating how we are going to negotiate.
We do actually need to get on with this task. We will certainly be reflecting ourselves on our own proposals and listening to what others have said about them and how we can forge them anew to make progress.
But on the specifics of the Brazilian suggestion. Sustainability is important. It is important on agriculture and important for this Organisation as a whole. Not only we regret that we were unable to achieve more on agriculture, it is so important, as you can see and hear this morning, for so many Members. We are also very disappointed we could not actually agree language on environment and sustainability in our Ministerial outcome. I am afraid it is one of those moments when this organisation didn’t look particularly credible in the face of what is actually happening in the outside world so let’s have a discussion on sustainability and agriculture. But let’s also have a discussion on how this organisation can help us save our planet.
Thank you.
Agenda item 8 – Incorporation of the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement Into Annex 4 of the WTO Agreement. Communication from 124 Members Parties to the IFDA (WT/GC/W/927)
Thank you very much Chair.
We said yesterday, and it is interesting to hear again today, how for so many of us, the conclusion of this Agreement was one of the high points of MC13. But equally the blocking of further consideration of the request to incorporate it within the WTO framework, was a low point. So, it is good that it is coming back here, and it is good to hear so many voices saying that this is an agreement that will make a real economic difference to people’s economies. To pick up on some of the comments of those who are reticent about this, and just to echo what the EU has said; we are not doing anything peculiar here. We are following the path quite clearly that was set out in Marrakesh – Article X.9 (10 9) and Article 2. 3 and we are looking forward to doing that at a reasonable pace because every day that this agreement is not in place, we are missing out on opportunities.
Thank you very much.
Item 9 - Reducing Costs of Remittances. Communication from India (WT/GC/W/926, S/C/W/466, S/FIN/W/100)
Thank you very much Chair.
Remittances is clearly a big issue globally, and, as the United States has just said, it is an issue treated by other international organisations as well and it is an issue on which we really benefit from the voices from those private sector companies that are involved in this business. We look forward, as I’m sure is an integral part of the Indian proposal, to an interactive dialogue with those private sector organisations.
I think there is an issue of process here as well. This was, after all, an issue that we sought to discuss at MC13. Many of us worked quite a bit on language to cover this issue. I seem to remember one delegation was also working on it and decided to walk out of those negotiations. So, there is a bit of irony in that this one delegation who blocked consensus on this, is now coming forward suggesting that we take it elsewhere. We very much look forward to the discussion at the seminar next week.
Thank you very much.
[Reintervention:]
This is not a question of accusations, we are just stating the fact that the Indian delegation, on three occasions, withdrew language regarding this, despite the efforts of many Members in this room to find convergence. They objected to notions, including on inclusion for women, which after all, make up one half of the world’s population but yes, they withdrew this text in regard to this issue on three occasions at the Ministerial. So yes it does surprise me to find that this text, and ideas being bought forward, at this General Council.
Item 10 - WTO Response to COVID-19 Pandemic and Preparedness for Future Pandemics/Pandemic Like Situations: Cross-Border Telemedicine Services and Building Pool of Health Professionals – Post MC13 Work. Communication from India (WT/GC/W/928, S/C/W/467)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
It is déjà vu all over again, to coin a phrase. So here we have a delegation that tried to bring forward this proposal at MC13 that achieved absolutely no convergence on this issue. And now, they are trying to bring it forward at the General Council. We have a discussion already scheduled in the coming days in the relevant service bodies of this organisation. For the record, we think this is an issue of public health, not trade policy, and we think it has no place here in this General Council. I find this process that we are going through on this issue, as on the last one, to say the least, bizarre.
Thank you.