Excellencies, distinguish professors, WTO Chair Holders, members of the WCP Advisory boards, invited guests and experts, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to welcome you today to the 7th International Conference under the theme of “Contemporary Issues in International Trade: A development Lens” under the auspices of the WTO Chair of Jordan.

Let me start by thanking Prof. Taleb Awad Warrad, our chairholder in the University of Jordan for leading the organization of this conference, as well as the co-organizers from our Chairs in Barbados, Chile, Egypt, Mexico, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, and Türkiye.

The WTO Chairs programme aims to support and promote trade-related academic activities carried out by universities and research institutions in developing and least developed countries and contribute to train new generation of trade experts who will be the policy makers of tomorrow. With the funding support from Australia, Austria, France, Korea and  Netherlands as lead donors, our Chairs have been running various conferences and workshops on trade related matters. Those workshops and more broadly outreach events are designed to offer a platform where academics, policy makers/government officials and business communities could exchange views, ideas and experiences.  It is very exciting for us to see this cross-continental initiative taken by our Chairs from Middle East, North Africa，Central and South America on examining the most relevant and pressing issues on Trade and Development.

The WCP Network affords opportunities of mutual learning given that Chairs from different regions could look at the same issues from different perspectives. The WTO also draw on the applied research and suggestions from the Chairs to complement their work on research and trade rules making. To illustrate, the WTO Trade Report which is one of our flagship publications regularly encapsulates case studies generated by Chairs. We welcome and support Chairs to provide evidence-based theoretical and empirical studies, particularly from their own countries' and regions' perspectives. In my various opening remarks for the launching ceremonies of the new phase III Chairs, I have expressed my expectations to see the WCP network to serve as a catalyst and enabler of regional and global research initiatives and to form South-South partnerships on joint research projects. I am so pleased to see this was already achieved during the last regional conference organised by the African Chairs on the African Continental Free Trade Area and I am also very satisfied to see this happening again today! During today's event, we will have 9 Chairs across different WCP phases and continents get together and organize this well designed and ambitious research conference! Exchange of good practices among the various Chairs, regional business leaders and policymakers will contribute to supporting sound trade policy formulation. Congratulations!

Ladies and Gentlemen, the world is facing unprecedented challenges posed by the Covid 19 pandemic, climate change, inflation, and geopolitical tensions. It is important for us, to look into the most pressing issues to build resilience and find the opportunities behind the challenges. Global challenges require global solutions and global solutions require multilateral coordination.

The conference agenda today is very relevant to these challenges: it presents the most recent research developments in topical trade policies. It also carries out a comprehensive and forward-looking approach by looking at the economics, business and finance environments in the years to come. 

I am pleased to note that tremendous work has already been done by our Chairs on trade and women empowerment, one of the most important topics on today's conference agenda. In 2021, three projects funded by the Netherlands on mainstreaming gender into trade policy were launched through the WCP Network with the aim of providing substantive contributions to the dialogue on trade and gender, and this has been brought to the fore by the Joint Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment issued in the margins of the WTO's 11th Ministerial Conference. One of the projects, “Trade and Gender in the Americas and Caribbean” was launched jointly by the three Chairs in Mexico, Barbados, and Chile. The others, “Trade, the Gender Gap and Equality in Jordan” and “Inclusive Trade in Turkey: Legal and Economic Perspectives on Gender and Employment” were implemented by the Chairs in Jordan and Türkiye respectively. Specific research was also made on the effects of COVID-19 on Mauritian women and blue entrepreneurs and on the factors that prevent Mauritian women micro entrepreneurs from shifting to digital trade. Suggestions were made on how to empower small and medium-sized enterprises by adopting electronic commerce practices and expanding their market base and visibility in the online trading environment. Through those projects, 11 curriculum-based activities, 14 research outputs, and 16 outreach events were successfully held.

In addition, many Chairs have been invited to join the WTO's Gender Research Hub, which provides a forum to collaborate with other trade and gender experts on various research and capacity-building projects. I encourage all academics interested in this initiative to contribute to this knowledge network. Those are significant achievements we shall be proud of and let me take this opportunity to thank once more the Dutch Government for their support in this research initiative!  I am looking forward to hearing more outcomes from today's panel discussion!

Ladies and Gentlemen, the issue of food security is at the heart of the WTO. Given the outcomes reached at the 12th Ministerial Conference, in particular those related to food security and the WTO response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Secretariat has organized a series of “Trade Dialogues on Food”, with the aim of encouraging debates on the role of international trade in food security. The Secretariat is also going to publish a report titled “Ensuring trade contributes to a sustainable, secure food future” in the coming weeks. I am looking forward to hearing your perspectives.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, global debt has surged. According to the International Monetary Fund, 58 percent of the world's least developed countries are in debt distress or at high risk of it, and the danger is spreading to some middle-income countries as well. In this regard, I cannot emphasize enough on the importance of examining the impact of monetary policy on international trade flows and I am very pleased to see you have included it in the conference agenda!

Other topics such as trade facilitation is also crucial, particularly for those are in the process of acceding to the WTO. According to the WTO's empirical studies conducted in the Sub-Saharan Africa area in 2022, the implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement will serve as an essential step towards magnificent trade cost reduction in the region.

Ladies and gentlemen, recent global challenges have showed us how production and trade can be seriously disrupted. The WTO Secretariat has recently released its estimates of world trade growth. The forecasts indicate that trade growth in 2023 will slow down to 1% from 3.4%, as forecast in April this year. The economic gains developing countries have reaped through trade are being reversed by various challenges. We need a globally coordinated response to those issues. The WTO Chairs Programme is a part of the efforts. It is a knowledge-generation and knowledge-sharing network, and we rely heavily on your innovation, creativity, and expertise to thrive the network and act as a global Trade Think Tank where policy makers could get useful analyses. I am looking forward to seeing a successful record of “South to South” learning and expect that the proceeding of this conference will be made available for the policy makers of the region and also for the whole WTO Community.

Finally, let me thank Professor Taleb Awad Warrad and your team again for organizing this important conference. I also thank my colleagues from the WTO Secretariat who have provided support in the implementation of the WCP. I wish this event a great success!

Thank you!