"This is expected to be an important guide for the World Trade Organization in determining and expediting measures for improvement in the future, which will ultimately enhance and increase confidence in the multilateral trading system and accelerate economic recovery," Director General of International Trade Negotiations at the Trade Ministry Djatmiko Bris Witjaksono stated here on Tuesday.
Indonesia expressed its view during the WTO reform and enhancement of the multilateral trading system that the world was currently faced with intersecting crises of the economy, environment, climate change, and health that hindered the process of achieving the 2030 Target Sustainable Development Goals, Witjaksono remarked.
Thus, an open, fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system, with the WTO as the focus, would contribute a great deal in handling crises and accelerating efforts to achieve the sustainable development targets, he stated.
Djatmiko remarked that since the Japanese G20 Presidency in 2019, the WTO reform has become an long-standing issue that was still discussed until the current Indonesian Presidency in the G20 forum.
According to Djatmiko, the WTO is the only international organization that handles all issues in the multilateral trading system.
The G20 Forum, whose members are also WTO members, serves as a way to provide political guidance aimed at resolving problems with no clear solutions in the WTO, as three main functions of the WTO were negotiation, monitoring, and dispute resolution.
"The G20 forum, since 2019, has produced various outcome documents in the form of statements and deliverables related to the WTO reform but had yet to be able to push the WTO to overcome the various challenges that exist," he concluded.
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Translator: Sella P G, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Sri Haryati
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