G20: at the start of the Commerce ministerial in Sorrento, focus on WTO reform, environment and pandemic

2021-10-11T19:37:48.512Z

Reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO), environmental sustainability and the response of the multilateral trading system to the Covid-19 pandemic are the themes at the center of the G20 ministerial meeting on international trade underway in Sorrento. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio welcomed the heads of 25 delegations (between states and international organizations) to the Correale Museum in Terranova in the evening. Among them the European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis and the US trade representative Katherine Tai. The head of the Farnesina then held bilateral talks with the Turkish Minister for Commerce Mehmet Mus and with his Argentine counterpart Santiago Andrés Cafiero. With the ministerial, the Italian presidency intends to bring the reform of the WTO to the center of the agenda,giving a political impetus to the process of institutional reform of the organization to relaunch commercial multilateralism. In fact, the ministerial aims to be a springboard for a positive result of the 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO, scheduled in Geneva from November 30 to December 3, which will represent a key moment for relaunching the multilateral trading system. The meeting, structured in several sessions, will be held at the Grand Hotel Riviera. Ministers responsible for international trade will discuss improving the trading system's ability to respond to public health emergencies, sustainable development and environmental protection, promoting digital commerce, reducing the cost of trade in services andopportunities to adopt transparent, predictable and efficient regulatory and administrative frameworks for investments. The topics that will also be addressed include support for the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in world trade and the question of the transparency of government interventions in support of the economy.