The World Trade Organization has now its 60th member “Barbados” as the part of the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA). On March 13, at the General Council meeting the announcement was made by Matthew Wilson, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations.
The MPIA is a temporary body which is designed to work on resolving the WTO trade dispute between the participating members. Barbados becoming a part of the MPIA also sends a strong political affirmation of support in the multilateral trading system.
During the announcement, Ambassador Wilson stated that becoming a part of MPIA shows Barbados cares about global trade. After this two-day General Council meeting there will be a 14th Ministerial Conference in Yaounde, Cameroon which will take place later this month.
Christopher Sinckler, a Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Trade will be leading Barbados delegation along with 66 members of the organization of Africa, Pacific (ACP) states, and Caribbean at Cameroon.
At the General Council meeting Ambassador Wilson addressed issues on the behalf of the ACP group such as the E-commerce moratorium, WTO reform and work programme. He also believes that in the first Ministerial Conference the first decisions will be on focusing on small vulnerable economics.
For the upcoming Ministerial Conference he also presented key proposals which will work on developing Medium, Small and Micro Economies. A working group is also chaired by Barbados which will feature a discussion on Plastics pollution. This meeting will be co-convener by Barbados.
Last Week, Barbados also held an engagement on ACP retreat along with participation of WTO Director General, DR. Ngozi Okinjo Iweala. There were also representatives from the International Chamber of Commerce, the World Economic Forum, and a high-level panel of Ambassadors from Canada, New Zealand, Argentina, China, South Africa, the European Union and the UK.
Additionally, the outcome of the retreat led to a document which ACP will present to the WTO at the Ministerial Conference. ACP mentioned topics such as digital trade, agriculture services, WTO reform, fisheries and development.
