PRESS RELEASE : World Trade Organization General Council [December 2023]
The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 21 December 2023.
The UK spoke on a number of agenda items at the World Trade Organization’s General Council on 17-19 December 2023.
Item 3 A (IV) Work Programme on electronic commerce
The UK would like to start by commending the efforts by the facilitator, and in particular, all of her leadership and guidance throughout this process.
The UK aligns with the statement made by Switzerland, on behalf of the co-sponsors. The UK is pleased to co-sponsor communication W/909. Renewal of the moratorium will preserve the foundation of global digital trade, and provide certainty for consumers and businesses around the world.
We do not have to wait for the Ministerial to deliver an outcome. Renewing the moratorium is something that we can, and should do right here. We welcome the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group’s recent communication seeking to extend the moratorium.
Over 100 Members are now calling for the moratorium to be extended at this time. We urge Members to join with a growing consensus – to get this done before the Ministerial.
Item 4 Work programme on small economies – report by the Chairperson of the dedicated session of the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD)(WT/COMTD/SE/12)
The UK welcomes the work that the Dedicated Session on Small Economies has taken forward throughout this year and thanks the chair for his leadership and support.
We are pleased to have agreed language on a draft Ministerial Decision ahead of MC13.
This will commit us to work on future digital trade, resilient supply chains especially around food security and climate change adaptation and mitigation.
All of this will be necessary if we are going to be able to support the most vulnerable countries going forward.
Finally, whilst I have the floor, I wanted to quickly update members to say that today the UK’s Minister for Development deposited the UK’s instrument of acceptance to the WTO’s Fisheries agreement and formally ratified the treaty, and I am particularly pleased to say that we have pledged to contribute up to £1 million towards the Fish Fund. So we are very pleased to see the UK’s flag in the map in the atrium and we are very much committed to intensifying the negotiations on phase 2 when we get started in the New Year.
LDC Graduation (Annex 2 of W/807/Rev.2)
We thank the CTD Chair for his report, and for the extensive work undertaken in the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Sub Committee to examine Annex 2 of the LDC Graduation proposal.
We agree with the Chair’s very good report.
The UK wants to see an agreement reached on LDC Graduation Annex II at MC13. To get there, as Norway said, we really need to intensify our discussions in the LDC Sub Committee.
There are clearly still elements that need to be worked through, and like Norway and others, we are very happy and keen to come forward with proposals to find ways to work it through.
But it is critical that we have very focussed, intensified discussions in January to ensure that we can deliver on this important issue at MC13.
MC13 – Immediate steps to respond to food insecurity. (Communication from Singapore)
The food security challenge is acute. The WTO has a clear role to play in responding to the food security crisis.
This is an issue our Ministers are going to want to focus on when they reach Abu Dhabi, so it is right that we are considering what we can do here.
That said, there are live discussions happening in the Committee on Agriculture Special Session (CoA-SS) and we should continue discussing Singapore’s ideas there.
It is clear we have to progress negotiations towards a fair and market-oriented trading system, including on reducing trade-distorting support, which would be beneficial for food security globally.
And we believe the efforts and progress made this year in CoA-SS ought to allow us to be more specific and ambitious in the details of what is possible than is currently contained in this proposal.
As part of this wider work in the CoA-SS it is clear that we need to begin to tackle export restrictions.
The UK has put forward a proposal, alongside proposals by the LDC Group and Japan. We see complementarity between those ideas and, as encouraged by the CoA-SS Chair, we are actively engaged on bringing together the key elements of all three proposals.
We plan to bring our ideas back to the membership in January, and we want to work with all Members, including Singapore, on what might be possible.
Tackling this issue needs to be part of a holistic outcome on agriculture at MC13. As we have said before, tackling export restrictions is not a substitute for progressing agriculture reform. There are high ambitions across the membership across all files on agriculture reform.
We welcome and fully support the efforts by the CoA-SS Chair to find a way through this challenging negotiation. As we said at TNC, let’s now intensify discussions, including at HoD level, to ensure we deliver on Agriculture at MC13.
Item 12 Proposed ministerial declaration for MC13: Strengthening regulatory cooperation to reduce Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). (Communication from Cameroon, China, Jordan, Macao, Myanmar and Seychelles)
We want to thank China for their proposal and for their presentation today.
We are pleased to work with Members on this proposal and it is great to hear new co-sponsors coming onboard.
This declaration highlights the important and varied work of the TBT Committee in facilitating trade and supporting collaboration.
In particular it invites Members to participate in this work, with a view to improving results through and within the TBT Committee and to foster more international regulatory cooperation.
This document sends a positive message about multilateralism and what it can deliver, during and after MC13.
So we welcome and look forward to discussing with potential co-sponsors and to help Members to understand this declaration, so once again we can deliver this one.
Item 13 Draft Ministerial decision on promoting agricultural productions and trade in Net Food Importing Developing Countries (NFIDCS) and LDCs. (Communication from LDCs and Africa Group)
Thank you to the Africa Group for their submission and presentation. Given it was only circulated two days ago London is still reviewing it. At this stage we wanted to reiterate the point we made under Agenda item 11: the negotiations are going on in CoA-SS, and they are live. We encourage Members with agricultural issues to bring them there. As others have said, we agree on the approach that we need to enhance productivity, sustainability and productive capacity.
Time is short ahead of MC13. This proposal is jam-packed. It asks Members and other international organisations to make serious commitments, including expanding limits on trade distorting support, establishing a new international compensatory financing mechanism.
We also have concerns as others have said around some of the new suggestions on flexibilities.
As others have said, negotiations are live in the CoA-SS.
We should all know the difficulties that we are facing there. We need a holistic approach in the interests of all Members, we need proposals like these to be part of that conversation.
We also have a food security work programme under CoA-SS as agreed at MC12. As a first step, Members should agree to conclude the food security work programme and its report as currently complied. Particularly as one Member is blocking this. Thank you.
Item 15 Technology transfer and Economic Resilience. Request from the Africa Group
The UK thanks the Africa Group for its papers. We have found the various discussions in the committees helpful. We do want to just pause, and like the US, we are a little unclear about the process. We agree with the point that they made. It is always helpful to see something in writing to guide our discussions.
We are presuming this is on the 6 Africa Group papers that have previously been submitted. As a Member that also has a paper on Technology Transfer, we have been active in the discussions across the WTO.
Hearing about the experiences of Members and their stakeholders has been informative and has been a good basis for constructive discussions.
We think that the input is critical to the discussion on how to promote voluntary technology transfer further, and we welcome further discussions with Members.
We recognise that technology transfer might not be a silver bullet, but we see it has an important role to play and very much has delivered results.
The UK believes that establishing a shared understanding of what constitutes voluntary technology transfer is important in continuing this discussion.
There are several factors that might help facilitate voluntary technology transfer. It is important to consider all of these factors and find practical responses.
We also believe that the Working Group on Trade and Technology Transfer is best placed to coordinate these discussions. It brings together what we have heard across the various committees, and can identify cross-cutting elements and themes so we can continue to discuss this in a constructive spirit. And we all know we are in the safe hands of the Chilean Ambassador.
Members will also be aware that the UK has a paper on IP that touches on technology transfer in relation to voluntary licensing. The UK is keen to continue to discuss this to understand Members’ perspectives better, and to consider the evidence base, to try to find a constructive way forward. We would welcome engagement with our proposal, particularly by sharing national experiences so that we can continue to develop our understanding and deepen this conversation and dialogue to work out what best practice looks like and how we can deliver it in the future.
Item 19 Enhancing multilateral deliberative function of environment – Related trade measures and fostering sustainable development. Request from China and Colombia
2023 is set to be the hottest year on record, dangerously nearing the 1.5-degree threshold. As our Ministers return from the UAE, we are pleased to see the first Trade and Finance Day at COP. We should feel the collective push behind us to make real progress here in this organisation. While we work the work that the DG and Secretariat have done, if I may, just encourage a little more engagement and transparency with Members in advance so that we can really help and contribute to that work.
The Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) and its recent reinvigoration is a key part of working here on what Members can do to tackle the climate crisis, alongside other environmental challenges.
We welcome the process and thank the CTE Chair to really drive this forward.
In June, the UK tabled its own paper on how to revitalise the deliberative functions of the CTE, and make sure it works for all Members, in line with our wider reform efforts. This included practical steps to improve the efficiency and inclusivity of our work.
We started we thematic sessions and it is great to see that these are now underway. It is the UK’s view that the discussion at the CTE work better when they are thematic to preserve the CTE’s valuable function as a forum for dialogue and exchange, rather than litigation.
They should aim to foster a more rigorous analysis of emerging policies and evidence. Members, with stakeholders’ support, can and should take time to explore what good policy design could look like. We also wish to emphasise the bottom-up, pragmatic work on trade policy solutions. This is the key added value of the CTE and we seek to not duplicate the existing WTO functions and the work that is done elsewhere.
