Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for being here today. I am delighted to be back in Nigeria.

Just two months ago the WTO held its first Ministerial Conference in Africa. This event — which was held in Nairobi — was a major success. It delivered some important outcomes to support growth and development. And — crucially — it put the spotlight on this continent.

Africa is on the rise. It is the world's youngest continent. Its economy is the fastest growing. Its potential is unmatched.

And it is clear that trade has a crucial role to play in helping to realize this potential.

We are seeing efforts to dismantle trade barriers across Africa. And we are seeing a real belief in the positive difference that trade can make.

The WTO has been working to support these efforts — and we want to do more. I want to keep the spotlight on Africa and ensure that trade is a catalyst to achieving your development goals.

That's why I'm here today.

It seemed appropriate that my first visit to Africa since the success of our Ministerial Conference should be to Nigeria — the continent's biggest economy, and a leader in all senses of the word. I want to discuss how the WTO can do more to serve you.

 

ECONOMIC CONTEXT

Around the world governments are struggling with a gloomy economic outlook and a range of challenges to delivering a return to strong growth. Nigeria is no exception.

Indeed, the country faces a range of formidable challenges — such as security and governance issues — which have been compounded by the steep decline in oil prices, due largely to global over-supply. This is acting as a brake on economic growth in Nigeria. And there are few signs that the decline in commodity prices will be reversed in the near future.

Diversifying the economy to reduce dependence on the oil sector is a clear priority. And improving the conditions for trade and investment will be an essential part of the policy mix.

By reducing barriers to trade and lowering the costs of doing business across borders we can help to attract investment, and provide access to new markets for Nigeria's budding business community.

And it is clear that there is huge potential here.

Nigeria has well-developed financial, legal, and communications sectors and the second largest stock market in Africa.

The manufacturing and services sectors have grown significantly in recent years, helping to rebalance the economy.

Innovative start-ups are emerging rapidly — covering everything from fashion to software development.

And, of course, Nigeria is also a real cultural force — with famous exports like Fela Kuti, Ben Okri or Nollywood — which is a whole industry itself.

This creative force needs to be supported by an enabling business environment — which helps you to get out there and compete.

And under Nigeria's new leadership, I think the country can look to the future with a renewed sense of optimism.

I met with His Excellency President Buhari earlier today and I commended his efforts to tackle the issues facing the country. We discussed how trade — and the WTO — can help in overcoming some of the challenges and seizing some of the emerging opportunities.

I look forward to strengthening this partnership as we look to the future. And, in addition to providing practical, technical assistance to help improve Nigeria's trading capacity, I think there are two key things that the WTO can bring to the table.

 

IMPLEMENTING NAIROBI & BALI

The first element is to implement the series of significant WTO trade agreements that have been concluded over the last two years.

I'd like to say a few words about what has been delivered — because actually there are some very significant items here for Nigeria.

I will start with the results of that Nairobi Conference.

On agriculture, members took a decision on export competition which is particularly important. It is the most significant reform in international trade rules on agriculture since the creation of the WTO.

Perhaps the most important point is that it will eliminate agricultural export subsidies which can distort trade and harm developing country farmers.

Nigerian farmers should not have to compete with the treasuries of developed countries. So ending these subsidies is very significant — it will help to level the playing field in agriculture markets to the benefit of farmers and exporters in Nigeria.

Eliminating these subsidies was actually one element of the UN's new Sustainable Development Goals — so it is a big achievement that we delivered this, just three months after the goals were agreed!

The decision will also help to limit similar distorting effects associated with export credits and state trading enterprises.

And it will provide a better framework for international food aid — maintaining this essential lifeline, while ensuring that it doesn't displace domestic producers.

Members also took action on other developing-country issues. They committed to negotiate steps to improve rules on public stockholding for food security and to negotiate a Special Safeguard Mechanism to help deal with import surges of food products, which can harm domestic food production.

Significant steps were also taken on Cotton, opening foreign markets for the most vulnerable producers — and ending cotton export subsidies as well.

And members agreed a package of specific decisions for least developed countries, to support their integration into the global economy.

It is important now that we follow-up on all of these commitments.

In addition, a group of WTO members has agreed a deal to expand the Information Technology Agreement. This will eliminate tariffs on 201 new generation IT products. Trade in these products is worth around $1.3 trillion each year — that's 10% of global trade. Significantly, the benefits of this deal will be available to all WTO members.

Altogether, these breakthroughs will have real-world economic effects, which can help to improve people's lives — particularly in developing countries.

And these results build on our previous Ministerial Conference, where members delivered a number of important outcomes, including the Trade Facilitation Agreement.

This Agreement was designed to reduce the time and cost of moving goods across the border. It will significantly cut the costs of trade — by an average of 14.5%. For developing economies alone, it could boost their exports by almost $730 billion per year. 

In Nigeria today the average time it takes to export goods is around 20 days, while imports take around 30 days. This pushes costs up so that many businesses can't afford to buy and sell goods internationally. So these reforms could make a big difference here.

By making trade flows easier, this Agreement can also support Nigeria's economic diversification. WTO research suggests that the Agreement could help developing countries to increase the number of new products exported by as much as 20% and it could help them to enter 30% more foreign markets.

It is also worth noting that the Trade Facilitation Agreement is actually very flexible. It provides developing countries such as Nigeria with a lot of leeway to adopt reforms at a pace which suits you, and it provides practical support to help in doing so.

In an increasingly globalized economy, countries where trade flows more easily also tend to integrate better into global production chains — and benefit from the boost in economic growth that this can bring.

However, in order to benefit from the Agreement, first it must be ratified. This is one immediate and very positive step that Nigeria could take. Ten African countries have already taken this step. So I urge Nigeria to act on this point.

Another action that is within reach — and that will benefit Nigeria — is to ratify a measure known as the TRIPS amendment.

This amendment allows essential medicines to be exported at affordable prices into countries that cannot produce the medicines themselves, without fear of action over intellectual property rights.

The amendment is very important. It was a demand of the African countries. But, for it to come into force, it needs to be ratified. I urge you to act on this as swiftly as possible, so that we can enact this important measure. The most important thing to bear in mind is that this ratification requires no changes to Nigerian regulations whatsoever.

On all these issues, the WTO is here to help. If more information or support is needed then we stand ready to provide assistance wherever we can.

Implementing all of these agreements is the first way that the WTO can support Nigeria. The second thing we can do is reach new agreements which will deliver for you.

 

FUTURE WORK

Ministers have started a frank conversation on the future of the WTO — and on how it can achieve more, and do it more quickly

All 162 WTO members want to deliver on the outstanding issues of the Doha Agenda, such as agriculture (particularly domestic subsidies), market access for industrial goods and services — to name just a few. But they do not agree on precisely how these issues should be tackled. In addition, some members would like to start discussing non-Doha issues, bringing some new topics into play.

This conversation has already started, in Geneva and in capitals around the world. And despite members' differences, there are some important commonalities. For example, there is a strong desire to maintain development at the centre of our work.

We need to build on these elements of agreement — and learn from our recent successes — to keep on delivering, and making as full a contribution as we can.

This conversation is an opportunity to make sure that the future work of the WTO delivers for you.

We can potentially take actions which will support your development goals — helping to diversify the economy and help more businesses to trade.

Many businesses in Nigeria are micro, small & medium-sized enterprises, so we can take further steps to support them to trade — and to lower the costs and the barriers which today make it too difficult for them to start exporting.

That's just an example. The point is that you have an opportunity to shape the future of global trade discussions in your interests. I want to help you seize that opportunity.

I have spoken a lot about what the WTO has delivered today — but we have to look at the full picture. The fact is that, until recently, global trade negotiations were simply not delivering enough.

This is one of the reasons why countries pursued other initiatives — like regional or bilateral agreements — to advance their trading agenda. Such initiatives are very positive and can complement efforts at the multilateral level. But they do create some challenges.

For example, the negotiations on the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) are positive, but Nigeria is not involved. So, although the services sector is a big part of Nigeria's economy, much of the conversation is happening elsewhere.

The stronger the WTO is, the more issues we will see being negotiated at the WTO — where everyone has a seat at the table.

Moreover, the stronger the WTO is, the better it can serve you.

In recent years we have shown that we can deliver. Now we need to keep making progress at the WTO so that Nigeria and others have their voices heard loud and clear in shaping the trade agenda.

 

CONCLUSION

Nigeria has always been a leader in the multilateral trading system. It was a founding member of the WTO, and joined our predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1960 — the year of the country's independence.

Today Nigeria is a member of some major negotiating groups at the WTO — and it played a key role in the recent negotiating breakthroughs which I have described today.

I look forward to working with Nigeria to ensure that the WTO delivers further reforms which can support development here — and across Africa.

You have my full commitment in that effort — and I ask you to get engaged in the debate. Nigeria's leadership will be as important as ever.