Tag: 2023

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 22 December 2023.

Today, 22 December 2023, the UK voted in favour of United Nations Security Council resolution 2720 calling for expanded humanitarian access in Gaza.

Foreign Secretary David Cameron said:

It is good news that the UN has come together to back a resolution to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The UK is doing everything it can to get more aid in, as I saw when I visited Al Arish in Egypt, near the border with Gaza, this week. People across Gaza urgently need food, medicine and shelter. We have consistently argued for more aid and called on Israel to open more border crossings.

As well as the need for expanded humanitarian access, the UN resolution today demands the immediate and unconditional release of hostages. This is vital.

Crucially, the resolution also calls for steps towards a sustainable ceasefire. This is an outcome that I advocated for last week along with the German Foreign Minister and strongly think is the right approach.

A sustainable ceasefire must mean that Hamas is no longer there, able to threaten Israel with rocket attacks and other forms of terrorism.

This resolution repeats so many of the points we have been making: the importance of complying with international humanitarian law. The need to reduce civilian casualties and it also backs a two-state solution that would be the best long-term guarantee of security and stability for both Israel and the Palestinian people.

We thank the UAE for their leadership on this resolution.

It has been a difficult process to reach agreement within the UN but there is now greater unity and purpose about what needs to happen to relieve the humanitarian crisis, and to start working towards the sustainable ceasefire that the British government has argued for.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 21 December 2023.

Explanation of vote by Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the UN Security Council meeting on Africa.

Thank you, President.

And I want to start by appreciating the role and the work of Ghana, Gabon, and Mozambique working with the African Union Commission in seeking to develop a framework for UN support to future African Union-led operations. And I think it goes without saying that the UK recognises the important role that African Union peace support operations can play in delivering peace and security in Africa.

The UK voted in favour of today’s resolution which represents a significant breakthrough.

As we look ahead, we recognise that more work will be needed to ensure that any future African Union-led operation can access the sustainable and predictable financing that it needs. And that requires clarity on financial and logistical burden-sharing arrangements between the UN, the African Union and other contributors – beyond elements for which contributors would already expect to receive reimbursement.

We also want to ensure that the UN Security Council, given its mandate for international peace and security, is fully involved and consulted from the outset in the development of any peace support operation. This will help us work hand-in-hand with the AU PSC to design accountable, effective and efficient missions of the future.

We very much look forward to working with Council colleagues in the coming months to cement today’s achievement and to ensure we have a workable framework that enables African Union-led peace support operations to meet the peace and security challenges faced in Africa and helps to silence the guns.

I thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 21 December 2023.

The UK’s Permanent Representative to the WTO and UN in Geneva, Simon Manley, spoke about the ITC at the World Trade Organization General Council (17-19 December 2023).

Item 22: International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO Report of the Joint Advisory Group (JAG) on its 57th Session

The ITC, what a terrific organisation it is. It is an organisation that delivers real impact across the developing world despite some very challenging circumstances – so we congratulate them on this report and the very successful JAG.

As I said at the JAG, we particularly appreciate the way that the ITC brings us close  to what actually works for businesses in the developing world, bringing commercial realism to our policy, and turning our policy into commercial reality on the ground. Our own trade partnerships programme, UKTP, with the ITC, helps us in the UK to understand what businesses need in order to take full advantage of our own, more generous, preferences scheme – the developing countries trading scheme. We were pleased to have more than doubled our funding to UKTP this year.

And we are of course extremely proud of the UK-ITC partnership on trade and gender – as I would say as Co-Chair of the informal working group – through the fabulous  SheTrades programme. Tackling gender inequality is at the very heart of our views as government on development and on trade, and we are delighted to see that programme progress.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 21 December 2023.

The Foreign Secretary will visit Al Arish as the UK continues to urge Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza through as many routes possible.

• Foreign Secretary to visit Al Arish to see first-hand the impact of lifesaving UK aid to the people of Gaza
• UK supporting delivery of humanitarian land corridor from Jordan into Gaza via Kerem Shalom crossing, with 750 tonnes of life-saving food aid arriving in the first delivery yesterday (20 December)
• Mark Bryson-Richardson announced as the Foreign Secretary’s Representative for Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, with a particular focus on the UK’s humanitarian effort in Gaza

The Foreign Secretary will see first-hand the impact of UK aid on a visit to Al Arish, near the Egypt-Gaza border today (21 December), as the UK calls for significant more aid to reach Gaza, through as many routes as possible.

David Cameron will meet with representatives from the Egyptian Red Crescent Society, who are coordinating the relief effort at the Rafah crossing, and hear how the UK’s contributions of shelter, blankets and other vital equipment has been providing much needed relief to the people of Gaza.

Together with international partners, the UK is increasing efforts to get greater humanitarian aid into Gaza. The UK will support United Nations World Food Programme to further enhance the new humanitarian land corridor from Jordan through Kerem Shalom.

The first direct World Food Programme aid convoy, made up of 46 trucks, travelled from Jordan to Gaza yesterday (20th December) carrying over 750 tonnes of food aid. A £2 million contribution from the UK will help to get further emergency food assistance to those who need it most.

We continue to urge Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza through Kerem Shalom and are exploring other routes to increase aid reaching Gaza, including maritime options.

Foreign Secretary David Cameron said:

The UK is committed to alleviating the suffering of people in Gaza. We have already trebled our aid commitment to Palestinians this year and the Prime Minister and I urged Israel at the highest levels to open Kerem Shalom in order to get significantly more aid into Gaza.

We need to use as many routes as possible to achieve this goal. We have supported Jordan to deliver a new humanitarian land corridor from Jordan into Gaza and continue to call for significantly more aid to be allowed into Gaza through Kerem Shalom.

I am delighted to appoint Mark Bryson-Richardson as the UK’s Humanitarian Representative. He is a highly skilled diplomat official with extensive experience working in the region and will drive forward this vital work.

The UK is stepping up its commitment for greater humanitarian aid and fuel to reach civilians in Gaza by appointing Mark Bryson-Richardson as the Foreign Secretary’s Representative for Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Mark is a former UK Ambassador to Iraq and previously headed the Department for International Development’s Middle East and North Africa Directorate and the cross-Government Stabilisation Unit.

So far, the UK has announced it will spend almost £60 million in additional humanitarian funding in Gaza, trebling our existing annual budget to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). UK aid will make a huge difference on the ground in Gaza, for example we will be providing coverage kits which are temporary shelters including plastic sheeting and blankets that are desperately needed in the harsh winter weather. The UK continues to reiterate the urgent need for more humanitarian pauses and sustained access for more aid and fuel to reach civilians in need.

The most recent package of £30 million funding, announced by the Foreign Secretary on his last visit to the region, has been allocated to trusted partners on the ground. This includes UNRWA, UNICEF, the OCHA Pooled Fund and the British Red Cross to support the Egyptian and Palestinian Red Crescent Societies, who are providing vital food, shelter and medical supplies.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 21 December 2023.

The UK spoke on a number of agenda items at the World Trade Organization’s General Council on 17-19 December 2023.

Item 3 A (IV) Work Programme on electronic commerce

The UK would like to start by commending the efforts by the facilitator, and in particular, all of her leadership and guidance throughout this process.

The UK aligns with the statement made by Switzerland, on behalf of the co-sponsors. The UK is pleased to co-sponsor communication W/909. Renewal of the moratorium will preserve the foundation of global digital trade, and provide certainty for consumers and businesses around the world.

We do not have to wait for the Ministerial to deliver an outcome. Renewing the moratorium is something that we can, and should do right here. We welcome the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group’s recent communication seeking to extend the moratorium.

Over 100 Members are now calling for the moratorium to be extended at this time. We urge Members to join with a growing consensus – to get this done before the Ministerial.

Item 4 Work programme on small economies – report by the Chairperson of the dedicated session of the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD)(WT/COMTD/SE/12)

The UK welcomes the work that the Dedicated Session on Small Economies has taken forward throughout this year and thanks the chair for his leadership and support.

We are pleased to have agreed language on a draft Ministerial Decision ahead of MC13.

This will commit us to work on future digital trade, resilient supply chains especially around food security and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

All of this will be necessary if we are going to be able to support the most vulnerable countries going forward.

Finally, whilst I have the floor, I wanted to quickly update members to say that today the UK’s Minister for Development deposited the UK’s instrument of acceptance to the WTO’s Fisheries agreement and formally ratified the treaty, and I am particularly pleased to say that we have pledged to contribute up to £1 million towards the Fish Fund. So we are very pleased to see the UK’s flag in the map in the atrium and we are very much committed to intensifying the negotiations on phase 2 when we get started in the New Year.

LDC Graduation (Annex 2 of W/807/Rev.2)

We thank the CTD Chair for his report, and for the extensive work undertaken in the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Sub Committee to examine Annex 2 of the LDC Graduation proposal.

We agree with the Chair’s very good report.

The UK wants to see an agreement reached on LDC Graduation Annex II at MC13. To get there, as Norway said, we really need to intensify our discussions in the LDC Sub Committee.

There are clearly still elements that need to be worked through, and like Norway and others, we are very happy and keen to come forward with proposals to find ways to work it through.

But it is critical that we have very focussed, intensified discussions in January to ensure that we can deliver on this important issue at MC13.

MC13 – Immediate steps to respond to food insecurity. (Communication from Singapore)

The food security challenge is acute. The WTO has a clear role to play in responding to the food security crisis.

This is an issue our Ministers are going to want to focus on when they reach Abu Dhabi, so it is right that we are considering what we can do here.

That said, there are live discussions happening in the Committee on Agriculture Special Session (CoA-SS) and we should continue discussing Singapore’s ideas there.

It is clear we have to progress negotiations towards a fair and market-oriented trading system, including on reducing trade-distorting support, which would be beneficial for food security globally.

And we believe the efforts and progress made this year in CoA-SS ought to allow us to be more specific and ambitious in the details of what is possible than is currently contained in this proposal.

As part of this wider work in the CoA-SS it is clear that we need to begin to tackle export restrictions.

The UK has put forward a proposal, alongside proposals by the LDC Group and Japan.  We see complementarity between those ideas and, as encouraged by the CoA-SS Chair, we are actively engaged on bringing together the key elements of all three proposals.

We plan to bring our ideas back to the membership in January, and we want to work with all Members, including Singapore, on what might be possible.

Tackling this issue needs to be part of a holistic outcome on agriculture at MC13.  As we have said before, tackling export restrictions is not a substitute for progressing agriculture reform. There are high ambitions across the membership across all files on agriculture reform.

We welcome and fully support the efforts by the CoA-SS Chair to find a way through this challenging negotiation.  As we said at TNC, let’s now intensify discussions, including at HoD level, to ensure we deliver on Agriculture at MC13.

Item 12 Proposed ministerial declaration for MC13: Strengthening regulatory cooperation to reduce Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). (Communication from Cameroon, China, Jordan, Macao, Myanmar and Seychelles)

We want to thank China for their proposal and for their presentation today.

We are pleased to work with Members on this proposal and it is great to hear new co-sponsors coming onboard.

This declaration highlights the important and varied work of the TBT Committee in facilitating trade and supporting collaboration.

In particular it invites Members to participate in this work, with a view to improving results through and within the TBT Committee and to foster more international regulatory cooperation.

This document sends a positive message about multilateralism and what it can deliver, during and after MC13.

So we welcome and look forward to discussing with potential co-sponsors and to help Members to understand this declaration, so once again we can deliver this one.

Item 13 Draft Ministerial decision on promoting agricultural productions and trade in Net Food Importing Developing Countries (NFIDCS) and LDCs. (Communication from LDCs and Africa Group)

Thank you to the Africa Group for their submission and presentation. Given it was only circulated two days ago London is still reviewing it. At this stage we wanted to reiterate the point we made under Agenda item 11: the negotiations are going on in CoA-SS, and they are live. We encourage Members with agricultural issues to bring them there. As others have said, we agree on the approach that we need to enhance productivity, sustainability and productive capacity.

Time is short ahead of MC13. This proposal is jam-packed. It asks Members and other international organisations to make serious commitments, including expanding limits on trade distorting support, establishing a new international compensatory financing mechanism.

We also have concerns as others have said around some of the new suggestions on flexibilities.

As others have said, negotiations are live in the CoA-SS.

We should all know the difficulties that we are facing there. We need a holistic approach in the interests of all Members, we need proposals like these to be part of that conversation.

We also have a food security work programme under CoA-SS as agreed at MC12. As a first step, Members should agree to conclude the food security work programme and its report as currently complied. Particularly as one Member is blocking this. Thank you.

Item 15 Technology transfer and Economic Resilience. Request from the Africa Group

The UK thanks the Africa Group for its papers. We have found the various discussions in the committees helpful. We do want to just pause, and like the US, we are a little unclear about the process. We agree with the point that they made. It is always helpful to see something in writing to guide our discussions.

We are presuming this is on the 6 Africa Group papers that have previously been submitted. As a Member that also has a paper on Technology Transfer, we have been active in the discussions across the WTO.

Hearing about the experiences of Members and their stakeholders has been informative and has been a good basis for constructive discussions.

We think that the input is critical to the discussion on how to promote voluntary technology transfer further, and we welcome further discussions with Members.

We recognise that technology transfer might not be a silver bullet, but we see it has an important role to play and very much has delivered results.

The UK believes that establishing a shared understanding of what constitutes voluntary technology transfer is important in continuing this discussion.

There are several factors that might help facilitate voluntary technology transfer. It is important to consider all of these factors and find practical responses.

We also believe that the Working Group on Trade and Technology Transfer is best placed to coordinate these discussions. It brings together what we have heard across the various committees, and can identify cross-cutting elements and themes so we can continue to discuss this in a constructive spirit. And we all know we are in the safe hands of the Chilean Ambassador.

Members will also be aware that the UK has a paper on IP that touches on technology transfer in relation to voluntary licensing. The UK is keen to continue to discuss this to understand Members’ perspectives better, and to consider the evidence base, to try to find a constructive way forward. We would welcome engagement with our proposal, particularly by sharing national experiences so that we can continue to develop our understanding and deepen this conversation and dialogue to work out what best practice looks like and how we can deliver it in the future.

Item 19 Enhancing multilateral deliberative function of environment – Related trade measures and fostering sustainable development. Request from China and Colombia

2023 is set to be the hottest year on record, dangerously nearing the 1.5-degree threshold. As our Ministers return from the UAE, we are pleased to see the first Trade and Finance Day at COP. We should feel the collective push behind us to make real progress here in this organisation. While we work the work that the DG and Secretariat have done, if I may, just encourage a little more engagement and transparency with Members in advance so that we can really help and contribute to that work.

The Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) and its recent reinvigoration is a key part of working here on what Members can do to tackle the climate crisis, alongside other environmental challenges.

We welcome the process and thank the CTE Chair to really drive this forward.

In June, the UK tabled its own paper on how to revitalise the deliberative functions of the CTE, and make sure it works for all Members, in line with our wider reform efforts. This included practical steps to improve the efficiency and inclusivity of our work.

We started we thematic sessions and it is great to see that these are now underway. It is the UK’s view that the discussion at the CTE work better when they are thematic to preserve the CTE’s valuable function as a forum for dialogue and exchange, rather than litigation.

They should aim to foster a more rigorous analysis of emerging policies and evidence. Members, with stakeholders’ support, can and should take time to explore what good policy design could look like. We also wish to emphasise the bottom-up, pragmatic work on trade policy solutions. This is the key added value of the CTE and we seek to not duplicate the existing WTO functions and the work that is done elsewhere.