Al-Gasabi Leads Saudi Arabia’s Delegation to WTO Conference

Dr. Majed bin Abdullah Al-Gasabi, Minister of Commerce of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Foreign Trade General Authority, led his country’s delegation to the 12th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which proceeds from June 12 – 15 in Geneva.

Preceding the conference, Al-Gasabi chaired the Arab coordinatory meeting in which the Riyadh-based Gulf Cooperation Council and the Jeddah-based Islamic Cooperation Organization took part.

The Saudi minister also led the meeting of the Arab member-countries of the WTO with the director general of the Geneva-based organization, organized by the Kingdom of

Saudi Arabia, the Arab group coordinator at the WTO.

On the sidelines of the conference, Dr. Al-Gasabi also held a series of meetings: with each of Egypt’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Neven Jamea; Bahrain’s Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Zaid bin Rashid Al-Zayani; Morocco’s Minister of Industry and Commerce Eng. Riyadh Mazoor; UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Abdullah Al-Marri; Kuwait’s Minister of Commerce Fahd bin Mutlaq Al-Shiraiaan; Sudan’s Minister of Commerce and Supplies Dr. Amal Salih Saad; Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hosoda Kenichi; India’s Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal; Kosta Rica’s Minister of Foreign Trade Manuel Tovar whereas ways of developing relations and enhancing economic cooperation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabi and each of them were discussed.

Addressing the conference, Dr. Al-Gasabi drew the attention to the fact that WTO still has the opportunity to give more, pointing to the impact of coronavirus COVID-19 and the ability to achieve an economic recovery to reach a fair and less costive access, expand the zone of vaccine production, respond to the food security challenges and electronic trade.

He recalled Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh initiative launched during its presidency of the G20 in 2020 on the future of WTO.

He reiterated Saudi Arabia’s call on WTO to facilitate the admission of developing and least developed countries to the world organization, particularly the Arab countries, citing the Joint Ministerial Declaration accrediting the Arabic language as a WTO official means of communication based on the Arab Commerce Ministers accreditation.

This year’s conference is set to discuss important issues, including agriculture, fisheries, WTO reforms, WTO response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and WTO response to food security in the developing and least developing countries.