Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala met with the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, on June 16 at the WTO.
They discussed the importance of multilateralism in addressing the current challenges faced by the trading system and how to prepare for a successful 13th WTO Ministerial Conference, to be held in Abu Dhabi in February 2024.
Recalling the outcomes achieved one year ago at the 12th Ministerial Conference, DG Okonjo-Iweala and Prime Minister Mottley emphasized the key role the WTO continues to play in order to improve people’s lives, particularly those in vulnerable economies like Barbados.
They underlined that WTO reform will be important in the run-up to MC13 and addressed other key topic, such as fisheries subsidies, trade and health, and climate change. DG Okonjo-Iweala complimented Prime Minister Mottley for her continued efforts in the fight against climate change, including the Bridgetown Initiative led by the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Mottley delivered the inaugural event of the WTO’s Presidential Lecture Series on March 23. 2022 at the WTO’s headquarters in Geneva. In her lecture, she stressed that open and equitable international trade is at the centre of reinventing the global order to address the world’s most pressing challenges.
Barbados has been a WTO member since 1 January 1995 and a member of the WTO’s predecessor, the GATT, since 15 February 1967.
