Two weeks have passed since the undersecretary of International Economic Relations (Subrei), José Miguel Ahumada, landed in Santiago on the way back from Thailand, where the APEC 2022 summit took place, and has already taken off again. The Foreign Ministry authority left for Los Angeles, where tomorrow will participate in the first meeting of Ministers of Trade and Investment of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), within the framework of the Summit of the Americas, which will be attended by President Gabriel Boric.
The issues that the undersecretary will promote in the instance will be related to the digital economy, productive chains and global value chains. He will also hold a Bilateral meeting with Katherine Tai, United States Trade Representative (USTR, acronym in English), in which they will address the bilateral trade relationship.
Later Ahumada will fly to Paris, where he will participate on Thursday and Friday in the OECD Ministerial Council (MCM, its acronym in English) of 2022, as part of the delegation led by the Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel. There, the focus will be on identifying spaces for collaboration on issues such as sustainability, inclusion and the environment, as well as highlighting common spaces with the OECD in the face of challenges such as gender and productive transformation.
On the first day, Ahumada will participate in the “Trade and Environmental Sustainability” session of the meeting of ministers of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and will hold bilateral meetings with the director of the OECD Development Center, Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir, and with the Minister of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica, Manuel Tovar, among other activities.
On Friday, he will participate in the meeting of the Ottawa Group -which brings together 14 WTO members such as the EU, Japan, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico and Chile-, the “Green transition for future generations” session of the ministerial, the launch of the New Zealand Trade and Gender Review, and will meet with the Director of Trade and Agriculture at the OECD, Marion Jansen, before closing the MCM.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is expected to be a recurring theme of the ministerial, as well as the debate on the accession of new members. On January 25, an invitation was sent to Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, unlocking a discussion that had not advanced since 2017. Thus, it is expected that the roadmaps of each country will be approved during the meeting.
5 years later
From Sunday Ahumada will be in Geneva, where he will stay until Wednesday of next week, to participate in the twelfth WTO Trade Ministerial (MC12), which takes place after five years.
In the agenda of the undersecretary are contemplated meetings with trade authorities from Argentina, Ecuador, China, Uruguay and Germany, among others. And, within the framework of the Global Gender and Trade Agreement (GTAGA) of the Inclusive Trade Action Group (ITAG) made up of Canada, Chile and New Zealand, members will welcome Peru and Colombia to the agreement.
MC12 will be attended by 164 trade ministers, and one of the main milestones is expected to be the reaching of the multilateral agreement to avoid fishing subsidies, which has been under negotiation for years. As part of the Trade and Health initiative, a commercial response to the pandemic will also be addressed, which considers the lifting of intellectual property rights to vaccines and medical supplies and commitments to try to avoid restrictions on exports. Russia-Ukraine, food security and the expected reform of the WTO will be other topics under discussion.
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