EU Statement by Ambassador João Aguiar Machado at the WTO Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), 14 December 2020

Thank you Chair and your DDGs colleagues as well as the staff of the WTO for the work done in 2020 under the very difficult conditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  I also thank the Chairs of the various negotiating groups for their reports.

Starting with fisheries subsidies, I would like to thank the Chair, Ambassador Wills for his report and his efforts to guide us in the negotiating process. Under his stewardship, we have made significant progress: his text provides a basis for a deal and we have clarified a number of technical issues.

It is nonetheless deeply regrettable that we will not meet our mandated deadline. There are reasons for this. The pandemic is a very real, physical constraint on the process, particularly for developing country delegations. In addition, the WTO lacks a Director General, who normally would have played an instrumental role in brokering compromise. But we should not hide the fact that Members have also not moved enough from their positions and the level of engagement is not yet sufficient.

The pressure to deliver does remains. In fact, we now need to work even harder to reach agreement to prohibit harmful subsidies as soon as possible, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

That means putting sustainability at the center of the new instrument. The prohibitions should reflect the fact that WTO members have committed to the full range of goals under SDG 14, including improving their fisheries management. Sustainability is not a luxury; it is not a nice-to have. It is a must-have for every country who wants to fish not just tomorrow but also the day after tomorrow.

Turning to special and differential treatment (SDT), I would like to thank Ambassador Chambovey for his efforts as Friend of the Chair.

Nobody disputes that special and differential treatment is a part of our mandate. But appropriate and effective SDT cannot be carve-outs and exclusions from the disciplines we’re negotiating. Any SDT needs to be seen in the context of our common objective and commitment of safeguarding a shared global resource.

That is why the EU proposes a needs-based approach with transition periods to give policy space where it’s needed but acknowledge developing countries also have to contribute and have responsibility for combating overfishing and overcapacity and fighting IUU fishing, and even more so when several developing countries are also major fishing nations.

On next steps: the EU remains optimistic that we can reach an agreement soon, but we also need to have a frank look at the way we proceed. In order to identify possible landing zones we need more in-depth discussions. In some cases, these difficult discussions are better to have in smaller, but representative groups. There is a deal to be made. We collectively should aim to conclude this agreement as soon as possible and in any case do so before the next Ministerial Conference.

The EU’s other ongoing priorities include:

First, it is high time and of the utmost importance to unblock the appointment of the new Director-General in accordance with the agreed procedures of 2001.

Second, taking forward the initiative on trade and health based on the communication the EU has circulated with a number of co-sponsors, which calls on WTO members to take actions to contribute to the fight against the current crisis. Our aim is to have a declaration on immediate actions adopted by the General Council by the end of the first quarter of next year. We hope that the call for multilateral cooperation on this important initiative will be taken up by a large majority of WTO members. 

Third, pursuing work on sustainability in the WTO. We have put forward a non-paper outlining our broad ideas on a trade and climate initiative on which we want to work together with other members including in the context of the Structured Discussions on Trade and Environmental Sustainability.

Finally, delivering outcomes on the ongoing negotiations in the Joint Statement Initiatives on e-commerce, services domestic regulation and investment facilitation. On e-commerce, we need to intensify our efforts next year and start addressing more difficult and complex issues to be able to deliver substantial progress in our negotiations by MC12. We have also made substantial progress in 2020 in services domestic regulation and we should continue the hard work to bring this JSI to a successful conclusion in 2021. We welcome the adoption of the MSME package, which we hope will also provide momentum for our work.