Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien (first, right) at the conference. (Photo: VNA) The Vietnamesedelegation also included Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations, the WorldTrade Organisation (WTO) and other international organisations in Geneva, andrepresentatives from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of ForeignAffairs, and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Addressing the event, Dien affirmedsupport for the multilateral trade system and Vietnam’s efforts to join handswith other WTO members to deal with challenges facing the global economy.
However, the minister pointed out a numberof shortcomings of the organisation, including internal ones identified during MC11 yet hardly resolved until today.
“We should be aware as well that it is nowtime for the WTO to undertake fundamental reforms in order to maintain andstrengthen its three core pillars, whilst adapting promptly to the profoundchanges and new requirements of the era. Never have we observed the issues onhealthcare, environment, food security and supply-chain disruption become morepressing and urgent than today,” he said.
It is therefore imperative that the WTO membersconfront the root causes of these challenges and explore appropriate solutionsso that the WTO can overcome them and continuously improve its operationalefficiency, he stressed, adding that the WTO should not be limited itself toproviding an effective negotiating platform, but also need to be a contributorto solving global crises, whilst maintaining and ensuring a level-playing fieldin the world trade.
He highlighted thatsince joining the WTO, Vietnam has been and willcontinue be wholeheartedly committed to the multilateral trading system.
“We are ready to cooperate with WTO membersin maintaining and strengthening the multilateral system with WTO at its core,in promoting and facilitating trade and investment, as well as in ensuring thevital supplies of goods and materials in the region and across the world. Atthe same time, Vietnam is willing to stand with other members in ensuringsustainable development for the world economy, bringing inclusive benefitswhile striving to provide pragmatic support to the developing and leastdeveloped members,” he stated.
Vietnam is attaching great importance tokey WTO negotiations such as fisheries and agricultural subsidies, he said,expressing hope that the members can focus on topics of urgency and interest suchas securing supply of food and essential goods for the people in acomprehensive and practical fashion.
At a discussion ontrade and climate change on the sidelines of MC12, the minister underlined that climate changemitigation is an important factor to achieve equality in the world, and heldthat the key issue is to achieve carbon neutrality while maintaining economicgrowth and improving living conditions for all, especially vulnerable groups.
He gave a number ofproposals to speed up actions against climate change during trade activities,and underscored the need to take into account specific conditions of eachcountry to avoid the mechanical application of environmental standards indeveloped countries to developing countries, either directly or indirectly.
According to theminister, the formation of an alliance of trade ministers in climate change canbe a way to realise these goals, along with the enhancement of cooperationand discussion not only within the WTO but also regional and bilateralcollaboration frameworks.
At a meeting of Cairns Group, a coalition of 19 agricultural product exporting countries,Dien highlighted three issues that need to be prioritised - the applicationof trade-distorting subsidies or domestic support measures, affecting manyimportant commodities such as sugar and other essential agricultural products;the application of special safeguards in agriculture that leads to unequal farmproduce trade; and measures recently adopted by some countries followinggeopolitical and supply chain tensions, which directly threaten global foodsecurity and may lead to several chain reactions.
An overview of the conference (Photo: VNA) The WTO Ministerial Conference is the highestdecision-making body of the organisation, which takes place every two years.However, due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, MC12 was postponed twice. This was agood chance for the WTO to prove that trade is part of solutions to many greatchallenges in the current era, whether public health or the environment./.
VNA
