WT/MIN( 22)/ST/ 132 
14 June 2022 
(22-4619) Page: 1/2 
Ministerial Conference  
Twelfth Session  
Geneva, 12 -15 June 2022  Original: English  
 
 
STATEMENT BY SENATOR DR. THE MOST HON.  
JEROME XAVIER WALCOTT,  FB, MBBS, FRCS, JP  
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND FOREIGN TRADE AND SENIOR  
MINISTER COORDINATING SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY  
BARBADOS  
I am indeed heartened to meet you, both as Barbados ' Minster of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade 
but also as the Vice Chair for GRULAC for the Ministerial.  Barbados congratulates the Government 
of Kazakhstan for co -hosting this twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference and we express our 
apprecia tion to the Government and People of Switzerland for their warm hospitality, and unrelenting 
commitment to making this conference a reality.  
 
Today, the world is a different place than it was when we last met in 2017. The multitude of 
challenges that confr onted the global community then, continue to us plague now.  The ever greater 
threats to the multilateral trading system and multilateralism itself, the rise in geo -political tensions; 
and the impact of the debilitating climate crisis, particularly on small  island developing states like 
Barbados, should have given us reason to take pause and to reflect on our shared global realities. 
Today, the challenges have grown in number and impact, and have had a ripple effect on global 
trade, global supply chains, foo d and nutrition security, our ability to adapt and mitigate against 
climate change and our respective capacities to attain growth and reach sustainable development 
targets. Whilst the impact has been felt by all WTO Members, it has been disproportionately so for 
those WTO Members that are characterised as small and vulnerable.   
 
The compounding impact of the COVID -19 pandemic and the climate crisis has thrust many small 
vulnerable economies (SVE), further into debt, reduced our fiscal space and has placed u s squarely 
on a track of realising a lost decade around the world.  The WTO will have a role to play in reversing 
this ill -fated course.  The fact remains that the WTO is at a major crossroads. If the organisation is 
to stay relevant as well as address the m yriad of challenges that continue to decimate the economies 
of so many of our countries, and have brought us to the verge global climate, food and energy crises, 
it certainly cannot be business as usual. The twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference must, serve a s a 
defining and seminal moment on the organisation 's history.   
 
History has shown that in times of crisis, our natural affinity to multilateralism has led to us taking 
the requisite moral leadership to overcome.  It is therefore incumbent on us at this twe lfth session 
to set the WTO on a path towards addressing these crises and in so doing, respond to the clarion 
call from its diverse Membership to treat to the core issues of importance to the international trade 
architecture which have been brought before this session for deliberation.  
 
The ocean economy is one of the main planks of our economic diversification and sustainable 
development objectives. Barbados remains committed to the mandate to prohibit certain forms of 
fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, and to eliminate subsidies that 
contribute to IUU fishing.  Barbados does not engage in large -scale industrial fishing, neither can it 
be considered as a large subsidiser of fishing or fishing related activities, nor a contr ibutor to 
overcapacity and overfishing. We therefore should not be meant to pay for those that contribute to 
it. It is incumbent upon us that we do not by the nature of our actions over the next few days, 
institutionalise the status quo which allows for th e providers of the most egregious subsidies to 
continue pillaging the oceans fish resources. Barbados maintains its call for special and differentiatial 
treatment, which is mandated, through an exemption for Members whose share of global marine WT/MIN( 22)/ST/ 132 
 
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  capture fis heries production is below a defined de minimis level within the overcapacity and 
overfishing section, of the agreement.  
 
The WTO must be adequately placed to play its part in the response to the current and future 
pandemics, particularly given the importa nce that response can have on the economic recovery of 
Members.  This is especially critical for those Members that are highly dependent on the importation 
of essential medical goods and services, and the potential effects that disruptions to global supply 
chains and increased freight costs could have on the food and nutrition security of net -food importing 
developing countries.   
 
As a nation which is highly vulnerable to the impact of the climate crisis and by extension the 
degradation of our landscape, our coastline and our marine resources, the concept of environmental 
vulnerability resonates deeply with us.  Our marine and onshore environments are under increasing 
threat from the growing problem created by plastics pollution.  We have been in the forefront of 
welcoming the agreement to negotiate an internationally legally binding instrument under the 
auspices of the United Nations to end plastic pollution.  Given its multidimensional and cross cutting 
impacts we consider this to be an area where  the WTO can play a strategic and decisive role.  
Barbados is therefore proud to be an initial signatory to the Ministerial Statements and a Coordinator 
of the Informal Dialogue on Plastics Pollution and Sustainable Plastics Trade in the WTO.   
 
We are just over the quarter century mark of this institution 's founding and there is an obvious and 
dire need for reflection, retooling and reform.  The reform process must be open, transparent, 
inclusive and based on the principle of consensus. The restoration of the  WTO's two -tier dispute 
settlement system is deserving is urgent attention.  In any work programme that is devised to give 
effect to reform in the WTO. The views and interests of all WTO Members must a critical feature of 
how WTO Reform is defined.  At the end of the process the WTO must be well placed to meet its 
Members wherever they are in terms of their development and aspirations for development.  
 
In closing Mister Chairman, Barbados applauds the WTO Director -General for her dynamism, tireless 
efforts and most of all her stellar leadership since her appointment in 2020, including her 
determination for this Ministerial Conference to occur.  Barbados reiterates its commitment and 
support to the shared ideals and vision of the WTO, particularly in ensuri ng that these ideas are 
integrated into the international trading system.  
 
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