Statements of Canada – WTO General Council – May 20-21, 2025
Agenda items
Report by the Chairperson of the Trade Negotiations Committee and Report by the Director-General
Thank you, DG. I would like to express my appreciation for the hard work you and your team have done on this document.
We fully support a discussion on how to reposition the WTO.
I’d note that our support is not new.
We, as a membership, have been talking about reform for some time, long before the current or most recent global tensions.
On timelines to decide which outcomes are feasible and which are not, I think that is an excellent idea, but not a new idea.
We said the same thing before the last ministerial meeting, but there always seemed to be a reason to delay that cut off. I hope we can exercise much better discipline this time round.
We agree that any ministerial meeting should focus on decisions that we know are ready to be positively endorsed by ministers.
We also support real and focused ministerial discussions on reform or deep reform.
What is most important is that we are honest with ourselves about what is needed and what is possible between now and the ministerial meeting.
I would also like to remind everyone here that the absence of a discussion on certain issues at MC14 does not mean they are not important. It simply means that we have made choices, and we are not taking issues to ministers if they are not ripe for endorsement.
Work Programme on Electronic Commerce – Report by the Facilitator
Thank you, Ambassador Brown for your ongoing efforts to bring members together to discuss critical topics and issues in the fast-evolving space of electronic commerce.
As we know, the Work Programme established many years ago (1998) was tasked with the responsibility of exploring cross-cutting issues and examining the moratorium on customs duties. This was a time when things did not look as they do now; some technologies that we use every day now were in their nascent stages then, and we could likely not even imagine where we would be today, or where technologies will bring trade in the future.
The pace of evolution in this space has not slowed, and digitalization of the economy is radically transforming the way we trade, making a space for e-commerce discussions at the WTO even more important.
Your report, Ambassador Brown, and the level of engagement from the membership show that the dedicated discussions have been expansive, dynamic and rich.
And we welcome the most recent workshop on the moratorium on electronic transmissions that saw engagement from businesses around the world speaking to their real-world experiences with the rules and commitments that we make here at the WTO!
Private sector insights allow us to move away from our often-circular discussions in Geneva to truly hear what impacts our stakeholders and their businesses. After all, we are here for them. We invite more engagement from stakeholders and IOs to better inform ourselves on the decisions we are tasked with making here.
Fragmentation of Global Trade through Tariffs and the Global Costs – Request from the European Union
Canada agrees that the series of unwarranted tariffs announced or implemented as of late are severely disrupting global trade and fundamentally undermining predictability in the international trading system, at great cost to businesses and consumers.
As the EU has noted, there is a clear need for greater transparency during this volatile time for businesses.
At this time of increased uncertainty, Canada reaffirms its strong and enduring commitment to an open, fair, transparent and predictable rules-based multilateral trading system, underpinned by the WTO.
Now more than ever, we must all work to uphold this system and safeguard global economic stability.
This is why Canada is, and will remain, actively engaged in WTO work, including to address the systemic impacts of sudden and opaque changes in tariff regimes, and to support efforts that enhance transparency, that safeguard predictability, and that uphold Members’ commitments.
The aim of Canada’s engagement is to continue to promote fairness, transparency, and stability in the global trading system.
