WTO Reform: Canada and the Ottawa Group

Background

Since 1995, the WTO has played an indispensable role in facilitating rules-based international trade. But the need to modernize is urgent.

In response, Canada is leading a group of 14 likeminded WTO Members, known as the Ottawa Group (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, European Union, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), in order to help WTO Members address specific challenges that are putting the multilateral trading system under stress.

The objective of this bottom-up process is to contribute ideas and analysis towards achieving meaningful, realistic and pragmatic reforms to the WTO over the short, medium and long term.

Since its establishment in 2018, discussions of the Ottawa Group have focused on:

• reinvigorating the negotiating function, including how development considerations can be best pursued in rule-making efforts
• strengthening the deliberative function of the WTO, or the way in which WTO committees operate
• focusing on safeguarding and strengthening the dispute-settlement mechanism

Current initiatives

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and in support of the critical role that the WTO plays in helping to ensure coordination and coherence between the trade-related actions taken by its Members, on June 15, 2020, Ottawa Group Ministers agreed to a joint statement outlining six concrete actions that the group would take. This includes:

• supporting efforts to advance the e-commerce joint statement initiative
• examining potential ways the WTO could facilitate access to medical supplies
• enhancing engagement with stakeholders

An important element of this work will be to give due consideration of what trade rules should be adapted or developed for collaborative policy responses to future global crises. Fundamentally, the Ottawa Group’s objective is to help lay the foundations in support of an inclusive, sustainable and resilient recovery.

On November 23 2020, Ottawa Group members unanimously endorsed a Trade and Health Initiative, which was presented to the WTO General Council in December 2020. Under the Initiative, Canada and the Ottawa Group are calling for further cooperation among all WTO Members to strengthen global supply chains and facilitate the flow of essential medical goods, including vaccines, amid the pandemic. The Initiative identifies a range of actions that Members are encouraged to adopt, including:

• implementing trade-facilitating measures in the areas of customs, services and technical regulations
• exercising restraint in the imposition of export restrictions
• temporarily removing or reducing tariffs on essential medical goods
• improving transparency

The Initiative continues to garner support from other WTO Members beyond the Ottawa Group.

Ottawa Group ministerial meetings

Papers developed by Canada

Discussion Papers/Statements by Canada on WTO Reform

• Canada’s discussion paper on strengthening and modernizing the WTO
• Canada’s discussion paper on strengthening the deliberative function of the WTO

Contact

If you have questions or comments about this initiative, we would like to hear from you. Please contact Global Affairs Canada at:

Trade Policy and Negotiations Division (TCW)
Global Affairs Canada
Lester B. Pearson Building
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0G2

Fax: 613-944-0757
Email: consultations@international.gc.ca