DEPUTY DIRECTORS-GENERAL

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Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I want to thank the Government of Kazakhstan for hosting this, the Seventh China Round Table.  

Second, I would like to thank the Government of China for its support extended through the China LDCs and Accessions Programme. Since its establishment in 2011, this Programme has made a substantial and welcome contribution to our accessions work, including through the Round Tables.  Over the years, these Round Tables have provided a valuable forum for fruitful discussions on systemic issues and practical considerations related to WTO accessions.

It is a great pleasure to return to Astana.  The creation of a new capital city is an expression of both hope and belief in the future.  This was true in modern times of Canberra and Brasilia.  It was true for the creation of my home city, Washington DC, and it is true for Astana, a new heart for Kazakhstan and Eurasia.

The choice of Astana for this meeting of the Accessions Roundtable is particularly appropriate.

The founding principle of the WTO, and the GATT system before it, is to promote peace. 

  • Peace through reconstruction after war. 
  • Peace through economic development.
  • Peace through improved commercial relations. 
  • Peace through negotiation and implementation of common rules.

We meet this week in a city that has been dedicated to peace.  In its short 20-year history, Astana has a remarkable record of seeking to foster peace.  

  • In 2010 Astana hosted the Summit of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe at which the heads of state and government put forward a vision of “a free, democratic, common and indivisible Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian security community stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok, rooted in agreed principles, shared commitments and common goals”.
  • Astana hosted the Congresses of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions to promote inter-religious and international dialogue for the sake of peace, justice and security in the 21st century.
  • Astana has hosted a series of summits aimed at improving regional security and co-operation.
  • Not least, Astana serves as an important location for negotiating an end to violence in Syria.

The hosting of this Roundtable is in line with the supreme purpose to which Astana has been dedicated - to expand the areas of the world in which peace is possible and to advance the well-being of more of the world's peoples.

This is the context in which the discussions these two days take place. 

One of our main priorities in the WTO is to ensure that all countries wishing to do so can use trade as a tool to promote economic growth and development. This is why WTO accessions continue to be a priority for the Organization. Since the transformation from the GATT to the WTO in 1995, the Organization has dealt with 58 accessions, 36 of which have been concluded to date thanks in large part to the strong interest of these acceding countries. 

The accession process has expanded the Organization's membership to 164 with a profound effect - greatly extending the reach of the WTO's shared rules and principles, and providing a platform for accelerated economic growth for many economies and regions across the globe. 

Much of this post-1995 expansion has occurred in this region.  Many of the acceding countries are represented here today are, including former Soviet republics; China and Mongolia to the East; Afghanistan to the South and Montenegro from the Western Balkans to the West - adding over 15% to world trade covered under WTO rules.  In the coming years, more countries from this region will accede to the WTO:  Indeed. At present seven are in the process of working on their own accessions.  I cannot therefore think of any better place to reflect on the future of the multilateral trading system, through the lens of WTO accessions, than here in Astana, in the heart of modern Eurasia.

Trade has played a major role in the exchanges of ideas, cultures and religions that took place between the major centres of civilization of Asia and Europe beginning in antiquity.  Much like today, the trade routes served to transfer raw materials, foodstuffs, and luxury goods from areas with surpluses to others where they were in short supply. With the demise of the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road, the sheer expanse of land and distance became a barrier to transportation and development. Today, with the disappearance of old, ideological battle lines and the establishment of new trade links, Eurasia has become increasingly important in terms of potential economic growth and key energy supplier to the world's biggest markets.  

Over the last 20 years, this vast landscape has seen greater connectivity through the emergence of better transportation infrastructure, logistics hubs and industrial zones.  New trading networks have opened up, and new trade agreements have been signed.  The WTO has an important role to play in this transformation. In fact, in many cases the accession process itself, which typically requires structural reforms across many areas of the economy, has been a key part of the story.  Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in 1991, international trade played a powerful role in transforming the economies of the newly independent states and in deepening their relationships with the rest of the world. GATT/WTO membership was used by them - and other formerly central planned economies, such as China and Vietnam - as a vehicle to modernize and adapt to market-based economic principles.

Despite their similar paths of economic reforms, accession experiences have differed widely.  While some joined the WTO after a short period of negotiations – for instance, Kyrgyz Republic in 1998 and Georgia in 2000, after 3 to 4 years of negotiations, others, such as the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan, spent nearly 20 years in negotiations and only joined the Organization more recently, in 2012 and 2015, respectively.  Generally, the longer the accession negotiation took, the greater the level of obligations the applicant has undertaken.   

There is still a lot of work to be done to bring the Eurasian dream fully to life. The full benefits of economic development and integration can only be realized within a stable and predictable framework of international rules, which allows governments and companies to define strategic goals and plan investments with a degree of certainty. This is precisely what the WTO is about.  It is a pillar of global economic governance, established on a foundation of non-discrimination, openness and transparency.

By committing to a maximum level of tariff protection and eliminating quotas on imports as required by the WTO, member countries create a predictable and transparent framework which improves the business environment and promotes good governance.  Similarly, the establishment of simplified rules on licensing, registration, and customs clearance can have a very positive effect on business.  For instance, for the landlocked countries in Central Asia, the WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement offers a multilateral framework to address the region's connectivity challenges that are integral to its agenda for economic diversification and modernization. 

For the region as a whole, to take advantage of all of the opportunities of potential economic growth, the rules of the international trading system need to apply uniformly. And while there has been tremendous progress in bringing countries of Europe and Asia into the WTO, as noted many accessions are still in the pipeline. These include Belarus and Uzbekistan, which originally applied for accession in the GATT period in 1993 and 1994, respectively.  Azerbaijan has been in this process since 1997 and Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1999.  For their part, Serbia and Iran began their own WTO accession journey in 2005. To this list of prospective WTO Members, we can also add Turkmenistan, which is yet to start the process. 

While lengthy and demanding, the accession journey has helped many countries to implement their development strategies for modernisation and transformation. There is probably no better place to discuss the dividends of the WTO accession process than in Kazakhstan.  Kazakhstan's WTO accession process lasted nearly 20 years.  It accompanied the country's transformation from a Soviet outpost to a modern, knowledge-based economy. Of course, accession is only the first part of the story. The full value of the multilateral trading system is in experiencing the benefits of day-to-day membership, and in exercising leadership in the system. Kazakhstan provides a good example of this leadership by hosting the next WTO Ministerial Conference - that is, bringing a cross section of WTO membership to this part of the world for the first time.  This meeting is a good precursor to Astana serving as the venue for the WTO 2020 Ministerial Meeting.  It is my hope that several of the acceding governments represented here will have become WTO members already or will be celebrating the conclusion of accessions at the Astana Ministerial Conference.

This brings me to the second theme of the Round Table – the evolution of WTO rules. It is no secret that the global trading system, and multilateralism itself, have come under fire in recent times. As the global economy is undergoing change at an unprecedented pace, one of the leading policy debates of the day is how to improve and adapt the rules and operation of the trading system to the needs of today's realities. There is an urgent challenge that we all recognize.  The WTO is a system that requires investment both through the lengthy accession processes for those recently acceded Members and through the continued engagement of the founding Members. All have a stake in preserving its value.

The WTO is constantly engaged in the process of improvement in the conditions for international trade.  A number of WTO Members have shown that they are prepared to consider a further evolution of the WTO's disciplines.  Many have begun conversations in a number of new areas as well as existing rules.  The initiatives announced in Buenos Aires in December of last year - covering: e-commerce; investment facilitation; MSMEs; and women's economic empowerment - are just part of the story. Although we must acknowledge that not all Members support these initiatives, it is clear that they are attracting interest.

The accessions process also contributes to the evolution of the international trading system, to rule-making in the WTO. Each new accession protocol has been adopted with the aim of strengthening multilateral disciplines.  In many instances this has set a new standard for WTO rules, such as enhancing legal certainty in relation to trade in energy products or raising the bar for transparency.  Accessions have also been a step ahead of the multilateral trade negotiations in the areas of trade facilitation and export subsidies.

With one-fifth of the WTO Membership now composed of economies that have gone through the accession process since the WTO was created, and with a further 22 economies in the accession queue, it is inevitable that the results of accession negotiations will continue to inform discussions on the future of the multilateral trading system and will accompany the evolution of WTO rules.

Turning to our program this week in Astana, we have a packed agenda ahead of us, that I am sure that this will be both useful and productive.

At this Round Table we are privileged to have high-level participants and distinguished guests who have been made substantive contributions to the multilateral trading system through their role in WTO accessions.  The discussions over the next two days can inject positive momentum not only in ongoing accessions but in the ongoing policy conversation on how to strengthen the multilateral trading system.

With these thoughts and my best wishes, I conclude my opening remarks.

Thank you.

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