Indonesia is looking forward to contributing to promoting farm negotiations. Agriculture remains a crucial economic pillar for most WTO members, particularly developing nations and least developed countries. WTO members need to overcome crucial issueJakarta (ANTARA) - The World Trade Organization (WTO) should be part of the solution to the current global crises in the fields of environment, economy, health, and security, Indonesian Trade Minister Muhammad Lufti emphasized.
"Indonesia is looking forward to contributing to promoting farm negotiations. Agriculture remains a crucial economic pillar for most WTO members, particularly developing nations and least developed countries. WTO members need to overcome crucial issues, including food security, welfare, and rural development,” the minister noted in a statement received in Jakarta on Tuesday.
All WTO members should be able to implement WTO’s functions and fully benefit from the multilateral trade system, he affirmed.
Lufti made the statement while delivering a general statement at the 12th WTO Ministerial-Level Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 12-15, 2022.
Before the opening of the conference, Director General of International Trade at the Indonesian Trade Ministry Djatmiko B. Witjaksono represented Trade Minister Lufti to lead a G33 (coalition of developing countries) meeting in Geneva on Sunday.
As a G33 coordinator, Indonesia pushed all G33 members to strengthen unity and solidarity in struggling for the interests of developing and least developed nations to achieve a just and balanced outcome of farm negotiations during the 12th WTO Ministerial-Level Conference.
Djatmiko stated that G33 members agreed that the issues of food security and agriculture had become a policy package at the WTO meeting. Several other priority issues include public stockholding for food security purposes and a special safeguard mechanism as an instrument to protect small farmers in the event of an import surge.
"The G33 has interests in guarding the issues because they have an impact on food stocks and food security," he stated.
At the Cairns Group (CG) meeting on June 12, Djatmiko highlighted the significance of coordinating the interests of developing and least developed nations regarding domestic farm subsidy that distorts global trade.
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CG is a group of WTO members exporting farm products.
In his recorded statement, Trade Minister Lufti stated that the multilateral trade system plays a role in promoting the sustainable development goals (SDGs), with one of them being related to fishery subsidy that can prevent further deterioration of marine destruction.
Indonesia agreed that the basic principles of fishery discipline is aimed at ensuring significant reduction of dangerous subsidy that contributes to illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.
However, the discipline must not ignore the development goals of countries relying on smallholder and small-scale fishery businesses to promote the local economy and eradicate poverty.
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Translator: Sella Panduarsa G, Suharto
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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