Mr Chairman,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to be with you today — and to be back in Indonesia.

This is my first visit since the WTO’s successful Ministerial Conference in Bali in 2013.

The conference was a historic moment for the WTO.

I was told at the time that Bali is affectionately referred to as the ’Morning of the World’.

After a tough period in global trade negotiations, I expressed the hope that our time in Bali would prove to be the ’morning of the World Trade Organization’.

And that has proved to be the case.

Our Bali conference delivered the first multilateral trade agreement since the WTO was created, two decades earlier.

It proved that the WTO could negotiate important outcomes.

And it showed that the organisation could deliver results with real economic impact, which will make a real difference to people’s lives.

I will come back to the results of Bali later. But I would like to pay a sincere tribute once again to the government of Indonesia for its hospitality and leadership which made the success of the Bali conference possible.

As a result, this country will forever be associated with a vital moment in the history of the multilateral trading system.

Of course, Indonesia has always been a committed and engaged member at the WTO.

The country was one of the founding members of the organization — and remains a central player.

Indonesia is an active user of our dispute settlement mechanism, which helps countries settle their trade differences in a transparent and objective manner.

And you play an important role as the coordinator of an influential group of developing countries in the agriculture negotiations — known as the G-33. 

I think this strong engagement shows two things.

First, it shows Indonesia’s confidence in the WTO, and the system of global trade rules that it embodies.

Second, it shows your belief that the WTO can help the country to improve its trading terms.

And right now, this engagement is more important than ever.

We are meeting at a time when the economic scenario is very mixed.

Last week I announced the WTO’s new trade forecasts. In 2015 global goods trade grew at 2.8%. And we expect it to remain at the same level this year. This would make 2016 the fifth consecutive year of sub 3% growth.

This is not unprecedented — we saw lower growth in the early 1980s. And we expect to come out of this pattern of low growth in the coming years, with trade growth forecast to pick up to 3.6% in 2017. But, nevertheless, it is a worrisome situation.

Of course, Indonesia has not been immune from some of the headwinds we’ve seen in recent times. Factors such as the dramatic fall in commodity prices and lower growth in China have had an impact here, as they have had in many other economies.

But I think there are reasons to be optimistic.

Indonesia has both a strong vision for the way forward in the medium term economic plan, and an extremely strong basis on which to build.

Indonesia is the largest economy in ASEAN. It is one of the most populous countries in the world — with a young, dynamic workforce. It has abundant natural resources. And it has an improving business climate — jumping 11 places in the World Bank’s 2016 rankings for the ease of doing business. This performance was in part due to reforms which improved access to credit and made it easier to pay taxes.

In a wider context, a range of reforms have helped to transform the economy — such as diversifying away from agriculture, so that manufacturing now accounts for a greater share of the country’s GDP.

Similarly, efforts on infrastructure development and to improve education and healthcare could have a very significant effect.

The government has set an ambitious trajectory, towards achieving 8% growth by 2019.

Trade can play an important role here. And I believe that some of the recent agreements struck at the WTO can help Indonesia in securing further growth, development and job creation.

The WTO provides the framework of rules by which global trade is governed.

These rules aim to avoid unilateral, discriminatory or arbitrary measures, helping to level the playing field between developed and developing countries.

In this way the WTO provides a kind of constitution for global trade — and I believe that the fundamental principles enshrined therein will remain constant.

Nevertheless, of course there are areas where the rules can be adjusted and updated to ensure that trade flows more freely, and to tackle some specific issues — particularly those faced by developing countries.

Changes to the rules come through negotiations — and with 162 members at the table it has historically proved very tough to reach consensus.

Our ministerial conference in Bali changed all that.

Members reached consensus on a range of important issues at that conference — including the Trade Facilitation Agreement.

This Agreement is about streamlining, simplifying and standardising customs procedures, thereby reducing the time and expense of moving goods across borders, and driving down the costs of trade. The impact will be very significant — greater than removing every single remaining tariff around the world.

Indonesia has already taken positive steps to facilitate trade, such as improving existing infrastructure, including Tanjung Priok port.

It used to take an average of 6.4 days for containers to leave the port after being unloaded. Improved systems have brought the time down to just over four days. This is very positive, but it is still four times longer than it takes in Singapore.

So there’s still work to do, and the Trade Facilitation Agreement can help to complement these efforts.

Studies show that when fully implemented, the Agreement could reduce Indonesia’s trade costs by around 13%.

This would have a big impact. It would lower the barriers for doing business overseas, which have often prevented companies — particularly SMEs — from accessing foreign markets.

Moreover, by further streamlining business processes, the Agreement will help to create an even friendlier climate for private sector investment.

But, in order to benefit from the Agreement, first it must be ratified. This is one immediate and very positive step that Indonesia could take. And, of course, it would be fitting for the country where the Trade Facilitation Agreement was delivered to lead the way in bringing it into force.

Since Bali, the WTO has continued to deliver — and to do so in ways which can benefit Indonesia.

Our most recent ministerial conference was held in December last year, in Nairobi.

At that meeting members took the historic decision to abolish agricultural export subsidies.

This was the biggest reform in agricultural trade rules in the last 20 years — and it fulfils a longstanding demand of developing countries.

By eliminating this trade-distorting support for exports, it will help to level the playing field in agriculture markets to the benefit of farmers and exporters here in Indonesia.

Under the decision, developed members have committed to remove such subsidies immediately, except for a handful of farm products. Developing members have the flexibility to cover marketing and transport costs for agriculture exports until the end of 2023.

Of course, there is much more to do in order to reduce distortions in the agricultural markets, but this is a significant step forward.

In Nairobi, members also pledged to negotiate in the next two years a decision on public stockholding of grains for food security purposes.

In addition, they made a commitment to negotiate a mechanism allowing developing countries to shield local farmers from import surges of food products which can harm domestic production.

As food security is a key element of Indonesia’s development strategy, the negotiations stemming from these recent decisions will be very significant.

And, as in Bali, I want to acknowledge Indonesia’s important role in ensuring that the negotiations in Nairobi reached a positive outcome.

The active engagement of Minister Tom Lembong and his resounding call for WTO ministers to summon the political will and flexibility needed to reach an agreement was instrumental to the success of the conference.

As a result of these breakthroughs, engagement in the work of the WTO is at a level today that I have not seen for a long time.

And with a great deal of effort also being put into regional trade deals, I think many are asking how the different tracks work together.

Actually, although a lot of focus has been put on regional initiatives lately, they are not a new phenomenon. They have long co-existed with the global system, and have largely acted in a positive way, reinforcing cooperation on trade.

In my view, a healthy trading system would see progress and engagement at all levels.

Our recent efforts to analyse these issues supports this conclusion. It shows that regional agreements have WTO DNA, and in the areas where they overlap with WTO rules we have found no obvious conflicts.

A bigger consideration is where such initiatives cover areas that are not currently covered by the WTO. And this puts the spotlight back on the current WTO agenda.

An important conversation is now underway among WTO members about how we should move our work forward.

It is clear that all WTO members want to deliver on the so-called Doha negotiating issues, such as domestic subsidies in agriculture, fisheries subsidies, and improved market access for agricultural produce, industrial goods and services. However, members do not agree on how to tackle these issues.

In addition, some would like to start discussing a wider range of topics, including other, non-Doha issues. Investment promotion, e-commerce, and small and medium-sized enterprises are a few of the broad areas that have been raised so far.

This is an important conversation. And despite some gaps, there are some important commonalities.

For example, there is a strong desire to keep development at the centre of our efforts and to continue making positive efforts to integrate developing countries into trading flows.

In addition, members want to achieve more — and to do it faster.

I think this is an exciting opportunity for Indonesia. You have the opportunity to shape the future of global trade talks in your interests.

I encourage you to bring your issues to the table. Clearly agriculture and food security are priorities. I have also heard a lot of discussion here in Jakarta about increasing the level of investment in the country. So there are a range of interests which you could seek to pursue.

This debate is happening now — and I urge you to stay engaged.

Your voice will be as important as ever.

I have tried to demonstrate today how important trade and the WTO are for Indonesia. But I think it’s also clear just how important Indonesia is for the WTO.

It was here in Indonesia that the WTO delivered its first major negotiating success.

And I hope that you will be at the heart of many more successes in the years to come.

Thank you for listening.