Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Session of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO has affirmed the relevance of parliamentary engagement in the future of multilateral cooperation on trade issues in its final document.
In his role as a member of the WTO Parliamentary Conference’s Steering Committee and Rapporteur of the Conference’s outputs, Federal National Council (FNC) member Marawan Al Muhairi stated that the document emphasized the significance of incorporating a parliamentary dimension into future multilateral cooperation on trade issues, considering trade’s significant impact on the world economy.
The Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, the FNC, in collaboration with the European Parliament and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), hosted the Abu Dhabi Session of the WTO Parliamentary Conference.
The paper places a strong emphasis on the part that legislators play in the ratification of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements that oversee and improve the facilitation of international commerce in all sectors of the economy through suitable mechanisms. In addition to guaranteeing equitable access to medications, vaccines, and essential medical technologies, it highlights the importance of parliamentary oversight of trade in modernizing the healthcare industry for the twenty-first century. It also supports innovation by defending the intellectual property rights that foster its development.
The document also emphasizes how crucial the World Trade Organization (WTO) is to enhancing people’s lives, negotiating trade regulations, monitoring agreements, resolving conflicts, and maintaining rules-based, open, and fair trade for the good of all, all of which depend on parliamentary participation.
The document urged all WTO members who have not yet ratified all WTO agreements, particularly the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, to do so as soon as possible, so that it can enter into force as soon as possible.
In light of the ongoing global change and the necessity of adjusting to the times, the document also emphasized the significance of moving toward stable, open, sustainable, ecologically friendly, and resilient global industrial chains, supply chains, and production methods as part of future trade agreements and policies, through cooperation under the auspices of the WTO.
It emphasized the need for lawmakers to pass laws that will promote the adoption of green trade practices that are compliant with multilateral agreements, maximize trade’s positive effects on the environment and marginalized communities, and make sure that trade policies pertaining to environmental issues do not amount to unjustified discrimination.