WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
WT/L/855 
3 May 2012 
 (12-2367) 
 Original:   English 
  
 
G20 TRADE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
PUERTO VALLARTA, 19-20 APRIL 2012 
 
Oral summary statement of Secretary Bruno Ferrari 
 
 
 The following communication, dated 2 May 2012, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Mexico.  
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 • G20 Ministers of Trade, and invited guests have, for the first time, discussed the impact of 
global value chains on world trade, and the links between trade, growth and jobs. 
 • In what follows, I outline the main points I picked up from our discussions, which I will 
transmit, under my own responsibility, to President Calderón in his capacity as the Chairman 
of the G20 in 2012. 
 • In my view, our deliberations during the three working sessions held were very rich and 
frank.  It was very satisfactory for me to see the interest of you all in really addressing the 
issues at stake, and in coinciding that the G20 provides with a unique platform to engage in 
discussing challenges and opportunities for international trade. 
 • There is a convergent view that regional a nd global supply chains have become increasingly 
complex and need to be approached in a comp rehensive manner, since they involve each time 
more countries, and include not only manufactures, but also agricultural goods, other 
commodities, and services. 
 • In the face of this new reality, it would be short-sighted not to take an all-embracing 
approach.  For a long time we have focused onl y, or primarily, on the export side, without 
really considering the benefits that imports can bring.  Putting in place protectionist measures 
to restrict imports brings a risk of handi capping domestic firms, displacing them from the 
global value chains, rather than pr oviding a competitive advantage. 
 • Development experiences like the ones shared by Singapore, So uth Korea, Cambodia, China, 
Chile and Turkey, among others, are very illustra tive and clear in terms of the relevance of 
trade as a way to transform economies, redu ce income disparities around the world and to 
tackle the big problem of poverty, unfortunately still present in the global economy. 
 • Participants agreed that the interdependen ce of global production operations means that the 
majority of international trade is in inte rmediate goods and services, and highlighted the 
importance of keeping markets open.  
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  • Several Ministers referred to the need to incl ude the developmental aspect of trade in this 
agenda. 
 • Particularly, a number of participants reminde d us of the importance of geographical location 
to move up in the value chains, and the rele vance of other policy components to develop 
infrastructure, facilitate financing and other ac tions to include Small and Medium Enterprises 
(SME's) in these global value chains.  It was also mentioned that the sequencing of liberalization matters, in order to achieve an effective insertion of developing countries in 
such value chains. 
 
• Moreover, better information on how trade opening and adjustment assistance benefits 
countries, firms and individuals could help to strengthen public support for open markets. 
 • In addition, certain participants indicated th at they should keep their trade policy space to 
preserve and create employment. 
 
• In this sense, there is broad agreement on the n eed to continue evaluating the implications of 
global value chains in world trade and economic  growth and development.  To this end, 
WTO, OECD and UNCTAD must continue their work on this field. 
 • Trade Facilitation was recognized as one of the most important actions to enable the well-
functioning regional and global value chains.  It was mentioned that they equally benefit 
developed and developing countries alike.  
 • It was also recognized that poor countries, and in particular LDCs, ma y require financial and 
technical assistance to be able to implem ent trade facilitating measures.  Readiness was 
expressed to address this.  
 • There was a shared sense that  an agreement on trade facilitation is a low hanging fruit which 
could be harvested with re newed efforts in Geneva. 
 • My feeling is that today we will be able to provide a strong political indication to foster the 
Geneva process.  Trade facilitation seems to be a good candidate.  Of course, it is clear that 
the developmental aspect must be included, and the resources to do so are there, just as Pascal 
Lamy reminded us.  
 • So again, if we can shed some "political light" on this to Geneva, that single indication will 
provide with oxygen to the multilateral trading system. 
 • There is a positive link between open trade and economic growth.  Of course, trade policy is 
one of many instruments for Governments to promote economic growth.  In other words, 
trade policy by itself is a necessary but not sufficient condition for economic growth and 
development.  
 
• We have also heard from several participan ts that protectionism carries a substantial 
economic cost for consumers, including the poor est people in our countries and to whom we 
owe special consideration.  
 
• It was mentioned that, given an appropriate po licy framework, analysis indicates that market 
opening can deliver economic benefits.  In the midst of insufficient recovery in the global 
economy and fears of "jobless growth", there is  every reason to maintain and expand open 
markets. 
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  • It was also mentioned that, while protectioni st measures may provide a positive short-term 
effect on jobs in the protected sector, the overall level of employment will most likely be 
negatively affected – particularly, but not only in the export sector.  
 • The negative effect of protection on employment would be higher if there is an increase in 
retaliatory measures by other countries. 
 • Following our Leaders' mandate, there was a broad support to reinforce the existing 
surveillance mechanism, including timely notifi cations on trade restrictive measures and for 
the analysis of the impact of such measures.   
 
• I heard a large number of expressions of inter est regarding reinforcing an effective peer 
review mechanism.  There was a constructive ex change of views on this; however, it is clear 
that this idea requires further analysis, as some  other participants expressed their concerns on 
duplicating efforts already being carried out el sewhere.  The centrality of the WTO for this 
discussion was acknowledged. 
 • Ministers confirmed the political guidance agr eed upon at the eight Ministerial Conference of 
the WTO to keep opening markets and to strengthen the Multilateral Trading System, giving fresh impetus to Doha negotiations towards results  in areas with potential for prompt solution, 
while intensifying efforts to find ways and approaches to overcome the most critical and 
fundamental stalemates in specially challenging areas. 
 • There were other very important topics that were mentioned as being critical to value chains 
and to enable better conditions for trade, incl uding the relevance of trade financing, non-
energy raw materials, market  access in agricultural products, avoiding protectionism through 
subsidies, services liberalization, and the need  to consider labour mobility as a fundamental 
part of production, among others. 
 • Finally, Russia, Japan and others indicated  the importance of following up these discussions 
during Russia's G20 chairmanship in 2013; this is something that we should build upon. 
 
• These are the main messages that I get from y esterday's discussions and which I will report to 
President Calderón.  
 
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