ENVIRONMENT - World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference 12 I Geneva, 12-17 June 2022

The Twelfth Ministerial Conference finally negotiated and adopted a package of measures on a series of key trade initiatives (“Geneva Package”) confirming the historical importance of the multilateral trading system and underlining the important role of the WTO in addressing the world’s most pressing issues at a time when global solutions are critical.

date: 01/07/2022

The Council Conclusions adopted on 12 June 2022 expressed the commitment to an open and rules-based multilateral trading system, with a modernised WTO at its core. The Council underlined the importance of anchoring climate and sustainability on the WTO agenda as well as more firmly establishing competitive neutrality within the WTO. The Council Conclusions supported the launch of a comprehensive review, through a structured process under the auspices of the General Council, of the operation of the WTO, with a view to making the necessary reforms to improve its functions by the next Ministerial Conference.

In view of Ministerial Conference 12, the Council Conclusions stressed the need to conclude the fisheries subsidies negotiations with a substantive outcome, in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 14.6, which calls on WTO members to prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminate subsidies that contribute to Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, and refrain from introducing new such subsidies. The Council underlined the importance of reaching an ambitious and coherent agreement that contributes to the global sustainability of fisheries resources, in line with relevant EU policies ensuring environmentally sustainable fisheries and consistent with the objective of achieving economic and social benefits.

The Geneva Package adopted at Ministerial Conference 12 includes:

an outcome document;
a package on WTO response to emergencies, comprising:
- a Ministerial Declaration on the Emergency Response to Food Insecurity,
- a Ministerial Decision on World Food Programme (WFP) Food Purchases Exemptions from Export Prohibitions or Restrictions,
- a Ministerial Declaration on the WTO Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Preparedness for Future Pandemics, and
- a Ministerial Decision on the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights;
an Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies; and
a Sanitary and Phytosanitary Declaration for the Twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference: Responding to Modern SPS Challenges.

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