Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Roberto Carvalho de Azevedo is calling for increased participation from the local private sector in accessing improved trade across the global market.

Ambassador Carvalho de Azevedo, who was speaking at a Jamaica Exporters Association breakfast meeting in his honour, stated that there will be no negotiation of a new agenda, and instead invited the private sector to think big and propose new ideas to shape the landscape of the WTO.

“We haven’t had time over the last two years to really sit down and think. We have been really hard-pressed to deliver and deliver quickly, if we had an agenda in front of us we would have to do it now, and I think we are at a point in Geneva when we can think a little bit about the future,” Carvalho de Azevedo, who is on an official visit to Jamaica, told the audience.

“I will be inviting the private sector to participate in this exercise very closely; the WTO is an intergovernmental organisation but at the end of the day we are representing our society, our stakeholders, and yet the private sector — the stakeholders, don’t give their input. As a negotiator and a representative of Geneva you are seen as an orphan, frankly, and you are just reacting to events instead of proposing and shaping the events. It is very important that we participate.”

“We will be listening and I guarantee you that we will be acting, you can’t just count on protection because that alone is not enough,” the ambassador added.

He noted that the WTO has made major accomplishments in less developed countries like Nairobi in Kenya, based on discussions at the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference, and one of them was the elimination of export subsidies in agriculture.

According to Carvalho de Azevedo, there were also outcomes for the less developed countries in areas of rules of origin, service waivers and facilitation of the opening of markets for cotton.

He emphasised the importance of having improved trade facilitation with the global market and lauded Jamaica for having it high on the country’s agenda. Trade facilitation across international countries allows for increased foreign exchange earnings, cost reductions, Jamaica’s merging into the global trade world, among others.

“It is a very important agreement that is flexible and allows members to undertake commitments, and there is also technical assistance to be provided. Another important thing about trade facilitation is it helps the micro, small and medium enterprises. The big enterprises, they manage, they operate on both sides of the borders, they have people to do this for them, the MSMEs don’t, and it’s much more expensive for them,” he said.

“There are some things that have to come directly from the private sector because you are operational on the ground; you are the ones who know what we can do. In the past it has always been about the major companies in certain areas; I think we should bring stakeholders from different countries, from different levels of development and also from different sizes, representatives from the MSME sector who know what the difficulties are and they can speak on their behalf.”

Carvalho de Azevedo said he will also be encouraging other Caribbean countries to increase their participation, on his other official visits later this week, before returning to Geneva for the World Economic Forum.

“I think this dialogue is something that we can shape and something that we must shape up, and I hope to count on your participation, your engagement, to think big,” he said.