GENEVA – This week, Ambassador María Pagán and the U.S. delegation participated in discussions and negotiations on a potential Ministerial Declaration for the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13), taking part in small group, plenary, and paragraph-specific break-out sessions.
Ambassador Pagán met with Members of the WTO’s Informal Group of Developing Countries to share U.S. perspectives on the current state of the dispute settlement reform discussions.
Ambassador Pagán met with European Union member state representatives to share U.S. perspectives on WTO reform, including dispute settlement reform, and U.S. priorities for MC13. Ambassador Pagán welcomed the engagement from the member states and discussed ways to continue to strengthen the work of the WTO.
Ambassador Pagán met with John Denton, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), to discuss the ICC’s recent contribution on a holistic framework for WTO reform. Ambassador Pagán welcomed the ICC’s active interest in WTO reform and discussed ways to increase broader stakeholder engagement in the WTO.
Ambassador Pagán participated in three informal, open-ended meetings of the Committee on Agriculture Special Session (CoA-SS) where Members continued discussions of draft text on agriculture for MC13. In total, the U.S. delegation, including capital-based officials, participated in 12 meetings covering agriculture issues this week.
The U.S. delegation participated in various meetings throughout the final week of the WTO's "Fish Month" to try to reach agreement on a text to discipline harmful fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing.
The U.S. delegation participated in an informal meeting of the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) to discuss a draft paragraph to be potentially included in the MC13 ministerial declaration.
The United States delegation participated in over 10 meetings on dispute settlement reform with WTO Members in various configurations to advance progress on achieving fundamental reform.
The U.S. delegation attended the Committee on Trade and Development Special Session (CTD- SS) meeting, as well as a least-developed countries (LDC) subcommittee meeting.
The U.S. delegation comprises Washington and Geneva based officials and is supported in its work in Geneva by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington, D.C. and a range of other U.S. agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, and Department of the Treasury. The delegation engaged in 46 additional bilateral and plurilateral meetings during the week across a wide range of issues.
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