Xinhua News Agency, Geneva, February 17th, title: The new head of the WTO will burn "three fires"
Xinhua News Agency reporter Ling Xin
The new director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala appointed by the World Trade Organization recently stated that resolving issues related to the new crown epidemic, reforming the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, and modernizing multilateral trade rules will be his three priorities after taking office. .
Okonjo Iweala was formally appointed as the seventh Director-General of the WTO on the 15th, and his term of office will last from March 1 this year to August 31, 2025.
At the subsequent video press conference, she emphasized that solving the epidemic-related issues and helping to cope with the dual impact of the epidemic on the health and economic fields will be her top priority after taking office.
She said that, on the one hand, by playing the WTO’s role in monitoring the trade policies of its members, it encourages members to cancel relevant trade restrictions to increase the freedom of cross-border movement of anti-epidemic materials; Under the framework of the Intellectual Property Agreement, the global production license for the new crown vaccine will be expanded to allow more poor countries to obtain the vaccine as soon as possible.
Reforming the WTO dispute settlement mechanism is also a top priority.
Okonjo-Iweala said that if the world's only multilateral platform for resolving trade disputes fails to function, then it does not make sense for members to formulate more rules. It is necessary to consider the demands of all parties to ensure that the reform of the dispute settlement mechanism is feasible.
She said that the good news is that all members have agreed to reform the dispute settlement mechanism, but they have different opinions on how to reform.
She said that she would understand the demands of all parties on the reform content, try to unify opinions, make the reform plan concrete and systematized, and hope to bring the plan to this year's 12th WTO Ministerial Conference.
In addition, Oconjo-Iweala stated that it is necessary to modernize multilateral trade rules.
She emphasized that it is very important to complete the negotiations in the field of e-commerce.
During the epidemic, the digital economy is advancing by leaps and bounds, and the scale of e-commerce will continue to rise rapidly in the future, but the WTO currently has no rules concerning e-commerce.
She said that in the past period of time, the WTO has ensured a fair and competitive multilateral trading environment, which is extremely important for consolidating a fair, balanced and transparent international trading system.
She emphasized that in the future, the WTO will still be committed to allowing all members, regardless of the size of their trade, to be beneficiaries.