Canada’s interventions - WTO General Council

May 5 and 6, 2021

8. PAPER TITLED "THE LEGAL STATUS OF JOINT STATEMENT INITIATIVES AND THEIR NEGOTIATED OUTCOMES" – REQUEST FROM INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA

• As indicated before, Canada does not agree with the argumentation presented in this communication.
• Plurilaterals of all different kinds have been an essential part of the WTO and the GATT system before it. 
• Interested Members have always had the right to discuss and negotiate on trade-related issues in the WTO context.
• Canada supports the joint initiatives model as it allows interested Members an avenue to address pressing issues of common interest, including through the creation of rules, when multilateral negotiations may not yet be a viable alternative. 
• Existing JSIs are transparent, inclusive and open. The majority of WTO Members are now participating in at least one joint initiative, demonstrating the broad support for this approach among the WTO membership, including from developing Members.
• Thank you, Chair

9. GENERAL COUNCIL DECLARATION, TRADE AND HEALTH: COVID-19 AND BEYOND ( JOB/GC/251/REV.1 ) - UPDATE FROM AUSTRALIA; BRAZIL; CANADA; CHILE; CHINA; THE EUROPEAN UNION; HONG KONG, CHINA; ICELAND; JAPAN; KENYA; REPUBLIC OF KOREA; MEXICO; REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA; MONTENEGRO; NEW ZEALAND; NORTH MACEDONIA; NORWAY; SINGAPORE; SWITZERLAND AND THE UNITED KINGDOM

Canada to intervene on behalf of the co-sponsors as follows:  

• On behalf of the forty-six (46) cosponsors (counting the EU as 27) of the draft General Council declaration on “Trade and Health – Covid19 and beyond”, Canada would like to provide our common views on how the WTO should contribute to the fight against the current as well as possible future pandemics.
• Developments around the world over the last few months and weeks have shown how pressing the need remains for a coordinated response to the Covid19 crisis. International organizations need to take action.
• Global cooperation is imperative to ensure access to essential goods including therapeutics and vaccines. Such cooperation is needed at all levels – from the industry and governments to international organisations working together.
• In this global cooperation, the WTO has a role to play, as the event on vaccine equity organised by the Director General on 14 April has shown us. Vaccine production needs to be scaled up and vaccine distribution needs to be made more equitable. There are several avenues to achieve this, and they include increasing transparency of supply chains to tackle bottlenecks, streamlining customs procedures and eliminating export restrictions, among others. Transparency is certainly one area where the WTO can contribute.
• Under the leadership of the WTO Director General, we support the pooling of expertise of the different Geneva-based Organisations to facilitate access to information, so crucial in the event of crisis, and increase legal certainty.
• In addition to these inter-institutional cooperation efforts, the WTO has also a lot to do on its own. We already made a concrete proposal for a Declaration entitled “Covid19 and beyond” that was circulated on 22 April (JOB/GC/251/Rev1). The draft Declaration includes various dimensions that we believe should constitute a basis for further work and agreement among Members, but let me recall some of them:
• First, we should make sure that governments do not introduce unnecessary restrictions to trade in essential goods. In line with G20 declarations, we consider that restrictive measures, if necessary, should remain targeted, proportionate, transparent and temporary to avoid disruption of global supply chains.
• Second, as we strive towards ensuring equitable access to vaccines across the globe, we must also make sure that the COVAX facility can operate unimpeded by trade-restricting measures.
• Third, we should intensify the work in the different WTO Committees to seek solutions for the challenges posed by the pandemic. For instance, the work already underway in the Trade Facilitation Committee is a good example. We should accelerate the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and share best practices on measures taken during this pandemic. We should build on that.
• We are ready to further engage and refine our thinking but it is the cosponsors’ collective view that such initiative could combine with other efforts and provide realistic and reasonable means to contribute to the fight against the current pandemic and create the conditions for better addressing future ones.
• Since the previous General Council meeting, seven (7) additional Members have decided to actively support this initiative, namely China; Hong-Kong, China; Iceland; Moldova; Montenegro; North Macedonia and the United Kingdom. We warmly thank them for joining this effort. Together, counting the EU as twenty-seven (27), we represent almost a third of the WTO membership, reflecting a variety of domestic situations.
• The forty-six (46) cosponsors of the Trade and Health Initiative are calling on the rest of the WTO members to also join this effort for a successful outcome on trade and health as soon as possible. In that regard we welcome recent expressions of support. Members should grasp this opportunity to show the relevance and importance of the WTO doing what it can to support the global fight against the pandemic. 
• Finally Chair, speaking strictly on behalf of Canada, irrespective of parallel developments, it remains imperative that Members make every effort to ensure the frictionless movement of vaccines and other medical supplies.
• Canada will have more to say on that under agenda item 11, however let me re-emphasize now that this trade and health initiative provides realistic and reasonable means to support our collective fight against the current pandemic and creates the conditions for better addressing future ones.

Wrap up remarks

• Thank you Chair. 
• And thank you to all those who intervened today in the discussion of this important initiative.  
• In particular, I thank the delegation(s) of Chinese Taipei who have indicated their intention to join us in this work. 
• I am also told that the delegation of Brunei has also expressed to us its desire to co-sponsor the initiative, and we welcome them as well.
• Chair, as I mentioned in my opening intervention, the co-sponsors will continue engaging with Members and stand ready to refine our thinking.
• In the end though, it is the cosponsors’ collective view that our initiative provides a realistic and reasonable means to contribute to the fight against the current pandemic and create the conditions for better addressing future ones.

11. STATEMENT BY COLOMBIA, COSTA RICA, ECUADOR, PANAMA AND PARAGUAY ON TRADE RESTRICTIONS THAT BLOCK EQUAL ACCESS TO COVID-19 VACCINES (WT/GC/W/818)

• Thanks to Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, and Paraguay for including this issue on the agenda again.
• Canada has also intervened at the recent meetings of the Council for Trade in Goods and the Committee on Market Access in relation to agenda items on export restrictions.
• In those statements, we provided some thoughts on how we understand GATT Article XI:2(a) came into existence.
• We also spoke about how little this provision had been used by Members prior to 2020.
• And we wondered if recourse to Article XI:2(a) might really not be appropriate in the midst of global efforts to address a global crisis.
• Today I would like to elaborate further this discussion by reflecting a little more on the past, make some observations on the present, and consider what we can do to better support the future.
• Since the GATT was formed, there have been at least four examinations by Members of the Article XI provisions and the use of the measures disciplined by them.
• An early effort in 1950 resulted in an agreement on “Standard Practices for the Administration of Import and Export Restrictions and Exchange Controls”
• While non-binding, the intent was to improve the administrative practices of Members and reduce unpredictability in the implementation of trade controls.
• Further efforts in the 1950’s saw some improvements to the provisions around import controls in relation to balance of payments provisions, however work in the 1970s and 1980s did not result in improvements to the rules.
• From the information exchanged during these past discussions, it appears clear to Canada that when export restrictions were imposed, it was to address local conditions, mainly in relation to supplies of natural resources or to promote domestic value-added activities.
• However, while pandemics have devastating impacts for many economies and local communities, they are by definition global problems driven first and foremost by health concerns.
• From the experiences over the past year, there are clearly lessons to be learned in how Members have reacted to the challenge of the pandemic.
• For example, Members have shared in the Trade Facilitation Committee how early implementation of the Agreement, and innovative solutions at the border, have helped them to positively facilitate trade, including for medical supplies, during the pandemic.
• We also have begun to hear more about the negative effects of measures taken by Members to restrict trade in medical supplies.
• The March 2021 discussion document entitled “Landscape of Current COVID-19 Supply Chain and Manufacturing Capacity, Potential Challenges, Initial Responses, and Possible “Solution Space”” highlighted how export restrictions have reduced the global supply of certain inputs to vaccine production.
• Similar findings in respect of medical supplies were reported to WHO Member States at their recent briefing on an evaluation of the Covid Supply Chain System.
• This Covid Supply Chain System is an effort by UN agencies, public health partners, vendors and NGOs to improve access to essential medical supplies to address Covid-19 through coordinated and efficient pandemic supply chains.
• During that recent briefing session, the presentation by the WHO Chief of Operations/Logistics noted that in early 2020, “Trade restrictions [were] a major obstacle to moving critical supplies to where they were needed most”
• He also observed that “…export bans further restricted global access to supplies”.
• We all remember that in response to the proliferation of new export restrictions at the outset of the pandemic, G20 leaders affirmed that:
• “Emergency measures designed to tackle COVID-19, if deemed necessary, must be targeted, proportionate, transparent and temporary, and that they do not create unnecessary barriers to trade or disruption to global supply chains, and are consistent with WTO rules”.
• But what if “consistent with WTO rules” is not good enough?
• What if the current rules actually do not support multilateral efforts to maintain the free movement of medical supplies and their inputs?
• When faced with a similar global health crisis, what if Members would choose only as a last resort to impose restrictions on exports of essential medical goods?
• What if instead the multilateral trading system could be improved to provide guidance to Members in this regard?
• That is, to first seek out how to support multilateral efforts in harnessing all available global resources and maximizing the production and distribution of the medical goods needed to face the next global health emergency.
• Essentially, to not let the multilateral trading system get in the way of future versions of the Covid Supply Chain System.
• Indeed, one of the recommendations from the System’s aforementioned review is for the WHO to develop a “playbook” to guide the agency’s response in the next crisis.
• Canada believes WTO Members should take stock of the lessons learned throughout this pandemic in relation to the use of GATT Article XI:2(a) on the trade in medical supplies.
• New principles on the use of export restrictions for medical supplies could help to guide the decisions we make in the next health crisis, especially in support of any WHO “playbook”.
• As mentioned under agenda item 9, the Trade and Health Initiative provides a framework for us to proceed.
• In particular, minimizing or avoiding the use export restrictions is more than a sufficient step, it is essential to achieving what I understand to be our collective objective
• As we have heard often, the supply chains for medical products, including vaccines, are diverse and their inputs are produced and sourced around the world.
• Avoiding the imposition of export restrictions on those inputs and the finished products is a key building block to ensure the ability of manufactures to ramp up their production as well as the subsequent distribution of these products.
• Canada will continue considering how WTO Members could improve the use of Article XI:2(a) in support of collective efforts to address future health crises, and look forward to working with Members on this important issue.