GENEVA — Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Commerce Dr. Majed bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi, who is also chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Authority for Foreign Trade, led his country's delegation to the 12th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) under way in Geneva.

Preceding the conference, Al-Qasabi chaired the Arab coordination meeting in which the Riyadh-based Gulf Cooperation Council and the Jeddah-based Islamic Cooperation Organization took part.

The Saudi minister also led the meeting of the Arab member countries of the WTO with the director general of the Geneva-based body, organized by Saudi Arabia, the Arab group coordinator at WTO.

On the sidelines of the conference, Dr. Al-Qasabi also held a series of meetings with Egypt's Minister of Commerce and Industry Neven Jamea; Bahrain's Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Zaid bin Rashid Al-Zayani; Morocco's Minister of Industry and Commerce Eng. Riyadh Mazoor; UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Abdullah Al-Marri; Kuwait's Minister of Commerce Fahd bin Mutlaq Al-Shiraiaan; Sudan's Minister of Commerce and Supplies Dr. Amal Salih Saad; Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hosoda Kenichi; India's Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal; and Costa Rica's Minister of Foreign Trade Manuel Tovar. Ways of developing relations and enhancing economic cooperation between the Kingdom and these countries were discussed during the meetings.

Addressing the conference, Dr. Al-Qasabi drew the attention to the fact that WTO still has the opportunity to give more in such areas as mitigating the impact of COVID-19, achieving economic recovery to reach a fair and less expensive access, expanding the zone of vaccine production, responding to the food security challenges and electronic trade.

He recalled the Riyadh initiative launched by Saudi Arabia during its presidency of the G20 in 2020 on the future of WTO.

He reiterated Saudi Arabia's call on WTO to facilitate the admission of developing and least developed countries to the world organization, particularly the Arab countries, citing the Joint Ministerial Declaration accrediting Arabic as a WTO official language of communication based on the Arab Commerce Ministers' accreditation.

This year's conference is set to discuss important issues, including agriculture, fisheries, WTO reforms, WTO response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and WTO response to food security in the developing and least developing countries. — SPA