G20 meeting in Jaipur: French Minister emphasises importance of multilateral trade for global growth, prosperity

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The long-term growth and prosperity for all economies is rooted in a functional multilateral system, French Minister delegate Olivier Becht said on Thursday at G20 Trade and Investment Ministers’ Meeting in Jaipur.

France’s Minister delegate for Foreign Trade, Economic Attractiveness, and French Nationals Abroad also laid emphasis on ensuring a level playing field and the organization’s continued relevance to make multilateral trade more resilient.

Addressing the first session of the meeting, Olivier Becht said, “I am very happy to have this in-person Ministerial meeting with all of you here in the beautiful city of Jaipur. I want to address many thanks to our Indian hosts for the impeccable organisation”.

“As several of my colleagues have already done, I would first like to remind, as trade relies on peace, that France condemns, in the strongest possible terms, Russia’s unprovoked, unjustified and unlawful aggression against Ukraine and its impacts on trade,” he added.

He said that the first session on multilateral trade is critical and welcomed the fact that it is one of the main topics on the agenda of India’s G20 Presidency. He added that long-term growth and prosperity for all economies is rooted in a functional multilateral system

Listing down some points, Becht noted the importance of delivering substantially ahead of the 13th Ministerial Conference of WTO.

“First, we have to deliver substantially ahead of MC13. For that, we need the G20 and its participants to provide impetus and support. A successful ministerial conference would send a much-welcome positive signal about the WTO’s efficacy. On the contrary, failing to deliver at MC13 would certainly bring a critical loss of credibility to the multilateral trade system, which is already severely weakened. The WTO, let us not forget it, remains the essential backdrop to the stability and prosperity of our trade relations,” he said.

He also stated that the first priority for MC13 should be to deliver on the WTO reform mandate given by the 12th ministerial conference last year.

‘We can all gain from an improvement of the way WTO works, in particular a fully functional dispute settlement mechanism. I hope we can achieve the necessary compromises to unlock the blockages,” he said.

The French leader further said that the leaders are convinced that sustainable and inclusive trade can play a driving role in economic development and poverty reduction, and this should be addressed at MC13.

“It is essential to ensure a good distribution of trade gains, without excluding the most vulnerable but rather facilitating their integration into sustainable, higher quality and more profitable value chains. We therefore support the work of the Trade and Development Committee in defining a new Aid for Trade program,” Becht said.

He added, “Let me underline that for more than 20 years, France has supported and funded technical assistance at the WTO to build up the capacity of developing countries, particularly the least developed among them, to strengthen their participation in the multilateral trading system. It’s important that G20 countries provide support to such a program”.

Becht said that the countries should aim to wrap up the plurilateral initiatives on e-commerce and investment facilitation in time for MC13.

“The agreement on investment facilitation for development will indeed help developing countries to attract more foreign investments. This would also prove that the WTO remains a place to negotiate and is able to deliver on modern challenges. We call on all G20 members who are not yet part of these negotiations to join them to increase their prospective benefits,” he said.

The French Minister further said that in order to make multilateral trade more resilient, ensuring a level playing field and the organization’s continued relevance for the future is key.

“Too often, the WTO has not been in a position to fully tackle modern trade challenges, because its deliberative function was not working properly. The EU has made proposals in this regard, which I hope will gather consensus. In particular, I would like to emphasize that it will be important to have a work program set up at MC13 to look at the interaction between state intervention and trade, as proposed by the EU. This is an important topic to ensure fair growth,” Becht added. (ANI)