Minister of Trade and Industry Nevine Gamea expressed Egypt’s full commitment to supporting the multilateral trading system and activating its role in facing the current global economic challenges.

During activities of the 12th Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the minister said that the WTO has an important role in developing international trade rates, developing value chains, and integrating developing and least developed countries into the international economy.

“It is important to reach results that contribute to confronting the global food crisis and enhancing global food security in addition to providing and facilitating access to vaccines, drugs, and medical supplies,” Gamea said.

She also pointed out that the meetings of the WTO contribute to restoring the credibility of the multilateral trading system and proving that it has sufficient flexibility to respond to the challenges the world is currently witnessing in terms of health, economic, and geopolitical crises by reaching outputs that contribute tangibly and effectively in addressing the effects of these challenges.

Furthermore, Gamea called for reaching a decision on a proposal for a temporary exemption from the application of some provisions of the Trade Aspects Agreement that is related to intellectual property rights to ensure that countries have equal access to vaccines along with diagnostic tools and treatments necessary to confront the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Consequently, member states have to promote and encourage the transfer of technology to developing countries with the aim of enhancing their manufacturing, technological, and scientific capabilities to overcome public health challenges.

“The aggravation of the current global food crisis confirms that negotiations on agriculture are critical, thus it is important to reach development and equitable outcomes that contribute to facing challenges. Moreover, it is important to address the existing imbalance in agriculture agreement between developing and developed countries, including finding a permanent solution for government storage for food security purposes — a special prevention mechanism that developing countries can use.”

“Meanwhile, the WTO should reform structural imbalances in local support while providing developing countries — especially net food-importing countries — the appropriate tools to develop strategies that would enable them to increase their domestic production,” Gamea concluded.