WT/MIN(22)/ST/76  
12 June 2022 
(22-4513) Page: 1/2 
Ministerial Conference  
Twelfth Session  
Geneva, 12 -15 June 2022  Original: English  
 
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. RYAD MEZZOUR  
MINISTER OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE  
MOROCCO  
Let me first express my deep appreciation to the Governments of Kazakhstan and Switzerland, to 
His Excellency the Chairman of the Conference, to the Director General of the WTO, and to the entire 
Secretariat for all the efforts made to ensure the success of this Conference.  
Our Conference is being held today in a particularly difficult international geopolitical context, where 
our countries are also facing the fallout from the COVID -19 pandemic, which has greatly disrupted 
global value chains.  
In these difficult times, Morocco recognizes the important role that international trade plays in 
addressing the impacts of the COVID -19 pandemic and in accelerating the recovery of the global 
economy.  
In this respect, it is necessary to define, together, a recovery plan, to face the negative effects of 
COVID -19 and to find appropriate and rapid solutions, likely to progressively mitigate the tangible 
consequences of this  pandemic. This is to facilitate the access of populations to tests, medicines and 
vaccines, while acting on the basis of a solidarity approach on the part of the international community 
and the WTO.  
In addition to that, the current international situatio n has led to another crisis, the consequences of 
which have had a direct impact on trade, by increasing not only the cost of energy, but also the 
price of food commodities.  
As a result, international cooperation in trade is more necessary than ever to kee p markets open 
and transparent, and thus limit inflationary pressures on prices.  
Unfortunately, the world today is faced with considerable inflation, affecting basic necessities, 
particularly essential agricultural products.   
In this respect, Morocco cons iders that the WTO must make progress in the agricultural negotiations, 
taking into account the sensitive external factors of this sector and doing justice to the developing 
countries, whose production and marketing face major challenges, due in particular  to the excessive 
subsidies granted by some countries, which create distortions in agricultural trade, often to the 
detriment of vulnerable farmers throughout the world.  
On the issue of fisheries subsidies, Morocco has always shown a willingness to reach a set of 
disciplines allowing the elimination of harmful subsidies favouring the overexploitation of the fishery 
resources, in order to meet the objectives of sustainable development. In this framework, Morocco 
has submitted concrete proposals based on pre cise and objective scientific data to reach an 
agreement that takes into account the economic and social dimensions of the Members and the 
sustainability of our oceans.  WT/MIN( 22)/ST/ 76 
 
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  With regard to the reform of the WTO, this should enable the multilateral trading syst em to function 
effectively so that it can meet our expectations and solve the problems as a whole, including the 
most urgent ones, with a view to making trade the means of achieving full employment, improving 
people's living standards and achieving sustain able development.  
Concerning the facilitation of investment for development, Morocco invites WTO members that have 
not done it yet to join this initiative, which is likely to create a more transparent, efficient and 
predictable environment to facilitate c ross-border investment. Our objective is to put in place a legal 
framework favourable to the development of sustainable investment, while improving transparency, 
simplifying and accelerating administrative procedures and requirements and strengthening 
international cooperation in this area.  
There are other important subjects that I would have liked to address in this speech such as 
trade -related intellectual property rights, e -commerce, dialogue on plastic pollution, trade and 
women's empowerment and micro, small and medium -sized enterprises. But for the sake of time, 
my delegation and I would like to discuss them properly and thoroughly d uring the coming thematic 
debates.  
I cannot conclude without paying tribute to the efforts of the acceding countries, in particular the 
Republic of Iraq and the Union of Comoros. Morocco, which has the honour of chairing the Working 
Groups on the accessio n of these two countries to the WTO, will spare no effort to complete their 
accession process to our Organization.   
Finally, despite the extent of the differences that we have to iron out in order to reach agreement 
on a large number of issues and adopt a roadmap for the next two years, Morocco is confident that 
WTO members will be able to come up with solutions on how multilateralism should evolve, in order 
to meet the legitimate expectations of our respective populations.  
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