Read-out of the bilateral meeting between FAO Director-General Dr QU Dongyu and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WTO Director-General

Today, 10 May 2021, the FAO Director-General, Dr QU Dongyu, and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,  Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), met virtually and discussed concrete steps to enhance and strengthen the cooperation between FAO and WTO.

The meeting mentioned that the COVID-19 Pandemic has shown the importance of open trade for sustainable and resilient agri-food systems, and focused on topics of high priority for FAO and WTO, starting with an agreement to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that would highlight this renewed cooperation.

They noted the value of a close cooperation on agricultural trade and standard setting, fisheries subsidies, developing aquaculture, trade digitalization and information systems, as well as FAO’s comparative advantage in providing food security and nutrition data and information.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala requested FAO’s technical and policy support in the framework of the ongoing negotiations of a Fisheries Subsidies’ agreement, and the provision of capacity development support at national level for compliance. In this regard, The FAO Director-General underlined the critical role of Aquaculture for conservation, the development of which at country level should be given special attention.

Dr QU further alluded to FAO’s International Platform for Digital Food and Agriculture, in view of the ongoing e-commerce negotiations, which will be a key area for cooperation.

The meeting further discussed the importance of food security data and information, which is produced by FAO as global public good and shared with Members and partners.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala underscored the importance she attributes to agriculture and her strong interest in establishing a strong result-oriented cooperation with FAO.

The FAO Director-General welcomed a very close collaboration with Dr Okonjo-Iweala, and committed the Organization’s technical support to sustainable development and achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda.

The two leaders agreed to have the respective experts of FAO and WTO work on next concrete steps, in collaboration with the relevant technical units in both Organizations.