Asunción, Agencia IP.- During the 13th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Paraguay led the launch of a ministerial declaration with 60 other developing members, calling on all members of the organization to refrain from imposing unilateral environmental measures with trade impacts that create unnecessary obstacles to trade or arbitrary or unjustified discrimination among countries.
It also advocated for achieving greater market access and reducing internal subsidies that distort agricultural trade, both within the Cairns Group (composed of net food-exporting countries) and in the Latin American group of the Declaration on Agricultural Reform.
Both groups issued statements reiterating the need for agricultural reform in its three pillars: market access, internal subsidies, and export competition, with a holistic and balanced approach, by Article 20 of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture.
The WTO Ministerial Conference took place from February 26 to March 1 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to negotiate multilateral rules of international trade, mainly on agriculture, fisheries subsidies, dispute settlement system reform, development, and e-commerce.
Industrial policy and trade and inclusion
In the Ministerial Dialogue on Industrial Policy and Trade and Inclusion, the Paraguayan delegation emphasized the need to approach the issues cautiously, considering the asymmetries among countries, advancing in parallel on topics of interest to our country, particularly improving market access. Likewise, it advocated for a more inclusive WTO that allows finding solutions to integrate SMEs, particularly those led by women, into international trade.
In parallel, the Paraguayan representation held meetings with authorities from the United Arab Emirates, the European Union, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Chile, Israel, Spain, Germany, and Portugal, aiming to discuss common interests, strengthen trade relations, and explore new business opportunities.
The delegation was led by the Vice Minister of Economic Relations and Integration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Patricia Frutos, and included the National Director of Tax Revenues, Oscar Orué; the Permanent Representative of Paraguay to the WTO, Raúl Cano Ricciardi, among others.