Kuwaiti Minister of Commerce and Industry Fahad Mutleg Al-Shuraian said on Monday that the current ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization is being held in the shadow of unprecedented global events and challenges facing the world trade order.

In a statement to KUNA on margins of the event, due on June 12-15, he affirmed significance of holding of the convention to deal with emerging challenges and promoting the WTO role which plays a crucial role with respect of global trade systems, supply chains and shoring up the global economy.

This conference had been scheduled to convene in Kazakhstan in 2020, however, this was not possible due to difficulties emanating from the coronavirus crisis, he said, noting that it had been delayed twice for four years earlier in the past since the last one, held in Argentina in December 2017.

The State of Kuwait, since joining the organization in 1995, has been dedicating particular concern for boosting the WTO role as a basis of the multi-party commercial order.

Regarding the agenda, the Kuwaiti official said that it addresses the organization’s response to epidemics, WTO’s reforms, issues related to fishing locations, food security, e-commerce and other topics related to global development and trade.

Al-Shuraian, since his arrival in Geneva, had taken part in a series of meetings, two of them with his GCC and Arab counterparts, a third one with the WTO director general, in addition to a number of meetings with delegations’ chairpersons.

He chairs the Kuwaiti delegation that includes the State of Kuwait Permanent Representative at the UN and International Organizations in Geneva Ambassador Jamal Al-Ghunaim, the assistant undersecretary for the international organizations and external trade Eid Khalaf Al-Rashidi, officials from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Public Authority for Industry and the Public Authority for Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resources.

Source: Kuwait News Agency