WTO Trade Negotiations: Morocco Pleads for Concrete and Achievable Compromises

Morocco continues to play an active and constructive role in all negotiation processes within the World Trade Organization (WTO) with a view to reaching concrete and achievable compromises, underlined on Monday the Ambassador permanent representative of the Kingdom in Geneva, Omar Zniber.

“Faithful to its role of facilitator country and defender of the interests of developing countries, Morocco has always been invested in the search for concrete and achievable compromises”, said Zniber, who presented the declaration of the Kingdom during a meeting of the WTO Trade Negotiations Committee.

Morocco, he pointed out, calls on members of the organization to address the major challenges facing all countries, in particular developing countries which are threatened by the impact of climate change, food security particularly in Africa, and the serious dysfunctions noted in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular access to vaccines.

The Moroccan diplomat mentioned, in this regard, Morocco’s proposals relating to negotiations on fisheries, agriculture and investment facilitation.

He also stressed that the WTO should play an important role in the global economic recovery, in particular for developing and least developed countries, by preventing the various types of restrictions on the export of Covid-19 medicines and vaccines to these countries and by removing protectionist barriers to their exports.

Zniber also made a statement on behalf of the group of co-sponsors of the “Informal Dialogue on Plastic Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade”. He presented in particular the conclusions of the 2nd meeting of the “Informal Dialogue” on plastic pollution and plastics trade, held last March under the presidency of Morocco, on the themes of transparency and international cooperation.

The informal dialogue was launched in November 2020 during the Trade and Environment Week of the Committee on Trade and Environment with the aim of providing a dedicated platform for members to explore – by the exchange of ideas, information and views – how the WTO could contribute to national and global efforts to tackle plastic pollution and move towards a circular and sustainable plastics trade.

In a speech on this occasion, the Director General of the WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, underlined the role of the Organization in the context of multilateral trade, calling for political will to ensure the success of the next ministerial conference, scheduled for the end of the year.

She expressed the wish to organize an informal meeting at the ministerial level on the conclusions related to fisheries subsidies.

Fisheries subsidies, in addition to other issues, in particular those relating to agriculture and the status of developing countries, are areas of significant divergence between member countries.