Bakhyt Sultanov: Paris Meetings (continued)

Source https://www.facebook.com/bakhyt.sultanov 

During his working trip, he held a number of productive meetings with colleagues - heads of departments responsible for international trade issues in their countries. Many of them arrived in this European capital within the framework of the OECD Ministerial Week for a face-to-face discussion of the accumulated issues of further development of the world economy and the participating countries of this authoritative organization.

During our conversations, we discussed topical issues of bilateral cooperation, as well as the preparation and possible outcomes of the upcoming 12th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (MC-12), which is scheduled to be held in late November - early December of this year in a face-to-face format, taking into account quarantine restrictions of the countries and Switzerland - the state on whose territory this important event will take place.

In particular, with the Minister of Trade, Tourism and Investment of Australia, D. Tean, who was elected Deputy Chairman of the MK-12, they discussed approaches to organizing the event and creating conditions so that countries with even polar opinions on key issues could find consensus. Together with him and the other Vice-Presidents of the conference, together with the secretariat, we face a complex logistical and substantive task of organizing interaction and decision-making by all 164 WTO member countries.

The prospects and priorities of the countries in regional and other aspects were also discussed with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil K.Franca, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy of the Republic of Korea Han-koo Yo, Minister of Trade of Indonesia M.Lutfi, Minister of Trade and Industry of Chad A.D. Campard, Coordinator of the Group of Least Developed Countries, Vice Minister of Trade of Japan N.Hirose and Vice Minister of Commerce and Industry of India A.yAdav. We considered in detail the necessary steps to achieve substantive results at MK-12, including decisions on the role of the WTO in assisting its members in combating the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as in restoring and maintaining the post-pandemic global economy.

In the next two months, both the organizers and the participants have a lot of work to do.