Director-General and WTO Deputy Director-General agree to strengthen agricultural trade promotion in Africa

12 September 2019, Rome - FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu met this morning with Yi Xiaozhun, the Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization, to discuss ways to strengthen collaboration between the two Organizations.

They exchanged views on how to collaborate in mobilizing resources to promote agricultural trade. Capacity building and help in adopting international standards (such as those of CODEX Alimentarius) were identified as key components of future joint activities.

They agreed on further strengthening collaboration between the two organizations by sharing FAO expertise concerning the different trends in the food and agriculture sector.

The Director-General and WTO Deputy Director-General stressed the importance of collaboration within the international system to achieve the common goals and discussed devising annual work plans for joint projects and ways to make such efforts more visible and deliverable.