By Abdullahi Lukman
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has called on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to deliver concrete solutions on public stockholding for food security and investment facilitation, warning that prolonged delays could weaken confidence in the multilateral trading system.
Kalu made the call at the 57th session of the Steering Committee of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland.
The meeting, co-chaired by Bernd Lange of the European Parliament and Anda Filip, Secretary-General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), brought together parliamentarians from national and regional legislatures, trade policy experts, the European Parliament and the IPU. WTO Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, attended as a special guest.
The committee reviewed developments in multilateral trade negotiations, follow-up actions from the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference and outcomes from its previous session in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Kalu acknowledged progress made on fisheries subsidies and development-related issues but said the WTO’s credibility would ultimately depend on its ability to deliver tangible outcomes for developing countries.
He expressed concern over the continued failure to establish a permanent solution for public stockholding programmes for food security, 13 years after WTO members made a commitment on the issue at the 2013 Bali Ministerial Conference.
The Deputy Speaker said Nigeria had joined the African Group, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group and the G33 in co-sponsoring calls for a permanent solution to the stockholding issue.
He also urged the WTO to advance investment
facilitation measures, stressing the importance of concrete outcomes in strengthening the multilateral trading system and supporting developing economies.
