Belize Participates in 12th Minister Conference of WTO

Ramon Cervantes,

A delegation led by Minister of State Ramon Cervantes is in Geneva, Switzerland where it is attending the Twelfth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization. The conference comes at a critical juncture for international trade which continues to face global challenges that ultimately affect the cost of living for Belizeans.  In his statement to the conference, Minister Cervantes voiced Belize’s strong call for an outcome on the negotiations to remove harmful fisheries subsidies that deplete global fish stocks and affect livelihoods and marine biodiversity.

Ramon Cervantes, Minister of State, Foreign Affairs

“Belize is represented there, I‘m leading the delegation, along with people from the foreign trade ministry and our embassy in Brussels.  You know, there are subjects of great importance to us that are being discussed and we are looking forward to coming out with conclusions and action plan because it‘s about five years now that we haven‘t been able to meet and so we need, for example, in the fisheries matter, it‘s been twenty-one years that we can‘t get, that the WTO has been discussing this issue and cannot come to a conclusion, cannot get a decision, cannot get a consensus. So those are the things we are trying to iron out.  It‘s been tough negotiations. You know, it‘s a hundred and four, over a hundred countries that are there and so that‘s what we are doing.”