ALLOCUTIONS — DG ROBERTO AZEVÊDO

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Remarks by DG Azevêdo

Good morning everyone.

It is great to join John, Daniel, Fernando and Frances today.

I'm pleased to welcome you all to our Public Forum.

This session is a symbol of the very positive engagement that we have built with the business community in recent years.

Let's be honest, for a long time, the WTO was not on your radar. We weren’t delivering new trade agreements. And it seemed like all the action on trade was happening elsewhere.

But from the end of 2013, we started to change that.

Members delivered a number of trade deals, which could bring some big gains for business. They include:

  • the Trade Facilitation Agreement  
  • the expanded Information Technology Agreement, and  
  • a deal to abolish export subsidies in agriculture.

These are the biggest reforms in the global trading system in a generation.

All this created a surge of engagement in the WTO – including from the business community.

People were excited about the WTO's work, and also wanted to contribute to that conversation.

That's why in 2016, at the request of the ICC and the B20, we held our first Trade Dialogues meeting.

This initiative was aimed at facilitating a dialogue with a range of stakeholders, so that they could raise the issues that they think the WTO should be tackling.

That first meeting was a real success. And it has led to a significant strengthening of our dialogue with the business community. Since that meeting in 2016,

  • we held a Business Summit alongside our Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires last year - this was the first business event held in the margins of a WTO Ministerial Conference
  • we also held dedicated discussions at our annual Public Forums and at other related events around the globe
  • we facilitated another Trade Dialogues event with business at the WTO earlier this year, and
  • we launched the Small Business Champions initiative together with the ICC, aiming to promote practical ideas to help smaller companies join global markets.

I am happy to say that the ICC and the B20 are the driving forces behind all these initiatives – including today's meeting. So I want to thank them for their leadership and support on this front.

Through these activities, the business community has been able to bring to the fore the issues that mattered most to them. Business also had a chance to present their concerns and ideas to WTO members. And these discussions have had a remarkable impact.

At our Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires last year, groups of WTO members announced new initiatives to pursue discussions in a number of areas. They included:

  • how to help promote electronic commerce for inclusiveness
  • how to support smaller businesses to trade so that they are not crowded out by bigger players
  • how to facilitate investments - which are critical to job creation, to build connectivity infrastructure, among other things, and
  • how to ensure that trade contributes fully to the economic empowerment of women.

Your engagement here, through the Trade Dialogues process, was a major factor in launching and informing these conversations. As you know quite well, some of these issues were priorities identified by the business community in our Trade Dialogues session with business in 2016.

So this process is already seeing real results.

At the second Trade Dialogues event, here at the WTO in June, we took the conversation to another level of depth and detail. I am glad to see that many of the participants of that meeting are here today.

It was a very rich debate back in June. The participants discussed a number of areas where they believed WTO work could help tackle the challenges they face.  

And I am very pleased that, under the leadership of the ICC and the B20, the participants continued their discussions after the meeting itself. And that conversation has resulted in the statement that is being presented at today's session.

I look forward to hearing those outcomes. I will also attend the B20 meeting in Buenos Aires later this week, where we will have the opportunity to continue this conversation.

But let's remember – reaching consensus amongst businesses is just one element of the equation. You also have to bring your ideas and suggestions to the members themselves, and work with them to drive your issues forward.

For that to happen, it is vital to engage with governments directly, and with other stakeholders who also inform members’ positions. This must be a constant process. Therefore, I am delighted you are using the Public Forum for this continued exchange.

And you should also engage outside the WTO. You should engage in capitals and everywhere where we can develop this dialogue.

This engagement is essential for another reason as well.

These are challenging times for trade. Escalating tensions between major trading partners risk undermining the system. So we can't just cross our arms. We need everybody who believes in the system as a force for good to stand up for it – and speak up for it.

In my experience governments listen to the private sector. Yet, I think that many are not making their views heard. Or they are not speaking loud enough. This has to change. Silence is interpreted as agreement.

We can't take the global trading system for granted.

The WTO's track record shows that we can deliver. The stability and predictability that the system provides – along with the new agreements that we strike – underpin the growth, development and job creation that we all want to see.

So I look forward to your support, and to seeing what more this partnership can achieve in the years to come.

Thank you.

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