Press Releases
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Fujii’s attendance at the Informal Gathering of WTO Ministers hosted by Australia
(Photo courtesy of the Australian Government)
On June 3, commencing at 7:35 p.m. local time (June 4, 2:35 a.m. JST) for approximately two hours and 10 minutes, Senator the Hon Don Farrell, Minister for Trade and Tourism and Special Minister of State, hosted the Informal Gathering of WTO Ministers at the OECD headquarters in Paris. From Japan, Mr. FUJII Hisayuki, State Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Mr. OGUSHI Masaki, State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, attended the meeting. This meeting is held each year on the occasion of the Meeting of the Council at Ministerial Level (MCM) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with relevant countries and WTO Secretariat invited by Australia.
- At the meeting, active discussions were held among participants on issues facing the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the path forward for WTO reform, with a view to the WTO’s 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) to be held in Cameroon in March next year and beyond.
- State Minister Fujii highlighted the relevance of the WTO as an essential infrastructure for the global economy and called for reforms to resolve the long-standing issues facing the WTO.
- In addition, State Minister Fujii emphasized the importance of plurilateral rule-making efforts such as the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement and the Agreement on Electronic Commerce, as well as the need to resolve structural problems such as the developing country Member status, as specific topics of WTO reform.
- The participating ministers confirmed that they would continue to deepen discussions, including on WTO reform, towards MC14.
(Reference) Participating members (total of 23 countries/regions/organizations)
Australia (Chair), Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, EU, Gambia, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, WTO