At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala urged government and business leaders to come together through multilateral institutions such as the WTO to address the multiple crises facing the global economy and world trade.
In a gathering overshadowed by the Ukraine conflict and its
impact on global food supplies, the Director-General met with heads of state,
prime ministers, senior officials, corporate heads, academics, journalists and
others during her Davos stay, which wrapped up on 26 May.
The DG also met with trade ministers in attendance on 25 May
to brief them on preparations for the organization's 12th Ministerial
Conference (MC12) on 12-15 June and to review progress in the negotiations on
several key issues to be addressed at MC12.
In her interventions, the DG underlined the important role
that the WTO can play in helping to tackle pressing issues such as growing food
insecurity, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, supply chain disruptions and
dwindling fisheries resources.
At a Forum session focusing on financing resilient
economies, the DG said that a theme common to all the major crises facing the
world today is that of the global commons, and the fact that no single country
can resolve these challenges on its own.
“You cannot have resilience unless you have global
solidarity,” she told the Forum participants.
“It's survival together, it's supporting each other, it's financing
together, it's recognizing that my resilience cannot happen unless your
resilience also happens.”
The DG reminded participants that world leaders created a
set of institutions after the Second World War based on the idea of solidifying
international interdependence and solidarity and using these institutions to
help solve problems of the global commons.
“We have the institutions, we just have not reformed them to
be able to deal with these issues, and my institution, the WTO, is one that I
think needs to be made fit for purpose,” she declared.
The Director-General also participated in a discussion on
challenges to trade with European Union Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis
and Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.
During this discussion, the DG noted that at MC12, WTO
members will be addressing many crisis issues. These will include the WTO's
response to the pandemic, both in terms of addressing trade and health
measures, and of a waiver to WTO intellectual property rules for vaccine
production; concluding more than two decades of negotiations on an agreement to
eliminate harmful fisheries subsidies; setting the path for future work on
agricultural reform; and launching the process for discussions on WTO reform.
Members will also seek to address food security fears by
looking at what steps can be taken to facilitate trade's central role in
ensuring that food is available to those in need, while also addressing the
concerns of producers regarding the need to ensure sufficient domestic supply.
“It's very difficult to agree to things multilaterally, and
that has been plaguing the WTO,” she acknowledged. “We shouldn't make light of
it. That's why we need to find ways forward to agree on some things to show
that the organisation can function.”
The DG also underlined the urgent need to address global
warming and its impacts during a Forum discussion on climate change. She said
that climate change should not be sidelined as the world grapples with other
immediate challenges.
“The consequences of inaction are in front of us every day,
on every continent, in so many countries,” she said. “It's true that we're in a
world of simultaneous crises, climate change, food, the pandemic, international
security, but I don't think we can prioritize one over the other because
they're all linked, they're all crises of the global commons.”
An effective response, however, requires significant
financial commitments, something many poorer countries lack as they grapple
with food shortages and the pandemic.
“Developed countries had promised that, to tackle climate
change, there would be US$ 100 billion per year to help poor countries meet
their costs. That hasn't been done,” she said in reference to the commitment
made at the 2009 United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen. “There are no
excuses on this.”
The DG reiterated her call for a global carbon pricing
mechanism involving developing countries to assuage fears of “green
protectionism” and said the WTO would be the proper forum for such discussions
given its broad and diverse membership.
The WTO is already collaborating with the International Monetary Fund,
the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
to explore such an initiative, she noted.