Statement of Canada – Trade negotiations committee

February 28, 2023

This discussion on supporting success at MC13 is timely. The informal retreats held over these past few months have helped elucidate Members’ positions and interests, and good progress has been made on reforms to the deliberative function. At the same time, our timelines for multilateral negotiations have been shortened.

We now have less than a year to achieve our promised deliverables. With that in mind, I hope we can work together in an effective, pragmatic and expeditious manner towards a realistic package of deliverables. Let me reiterate Canada’s objectives in some of the key areas of work:

On agriculture, you can count on Canada’s continued constructive engagement with other members on the best way to move forward the agriculture negotiations. All Members need to work through any and all configurations to reach our common goal.

On fisheries subsidies: We support the Director General’s ambitious goal of ratification of the Fish Agreement by MC13. And, we are fully committed to continue the negotiations on the outstanding elements, in line with the Ministerial Declaration from MC12. We look forward to participating in the upcoming negotiating clusters recently announced. To respond to your specific question on modalities, DG, we support the Chair’s work programme. Participation from capital-based senior officials and perhaps a meeting of Ministers is something Canada is open to.

On reform, Canada welcomed the frank and constructive exchanges at last month’s retreat on development. On the margins of the World Economic Forum, the Ottawa Group Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the WTO reform, including through ensuring developing member voices are heard, and tasked officials with forward work in this regard.

We welcome the current reinvigoration of the work program on e-commerce, with a particular focus on the development dimension and covering the moratorium at the dedicated session in April with the aim of extending it to MC13.

On dispute settlement, our common goal is to have a fully functioning system in place by 2024. To that end, we will need to focus on what is really needed to meet Members' needs. Canada intends to participate actively and constructively in discussions to achieve this goal.

On the trade and environmental sustainability structured discussions, these covered a variety of topics in 2022 that allowed for more focused and in-depth discussions to identify concrete actions that participating Members could take individually or collectively to advance trade and environmental objectives.

As the global economy evolves and transforms, it is important that the WTO be able to address emerging issues. In this context, we welcome the progress made on the various joint statement initiatives and look forward to an early conclusion on investment facilitation for development and e-commerce.

In conclusion, it has now been more than a year since Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, an event that has had catastrophic effects on Ukraine, its neighbours, and people around the world. For a year, Ukraine has endured staggering levels of destruction and human suffering, and its ability to participate in the global trading system has been severely impaired. We must stand united against this unprovoked and illegal invasion and these attempted annexations.

Thank you.