UK International Trade Secretary (Cabinet Minister) Anne-Marie Trevelyan reaffirmed, on Sunday, the central importance of freedom and fairness in global trade. She was speaking ahead of the twelfth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which will run from Sunday to Wednesday at WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. She also affirmed that the summit would demonstrate that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would not undermine the rules-based international system.

“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s brutal war unleashed devastation and disruption on a world already burdened with Covid-19 and facing the omnipresent threat of climate change,” she asserted. “The UK will continue to show leadership at this critical and fragile time, when we must defend the values that bind us together. Freedom and fairness are now more important than ever if we wish to use global trade to grow our economies, deliver better living standards for communities at home and abroad, and to address some of the world’s most significant challenges.”

The UK would seek to use the summit to meaningfully advance progress on important global issues. These included – food security, overfishing (through completing WTO negotiations on damaging fishing subsidies) and tariff-free electronic trade. The UK wanted global trade rules that met the needs of the modern economy.

Further, the British delegation, led by Trevelyan, would also aim at progressing international initiatives to deal with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She would call for united international action to show solidarity with Ukraine.

“Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion is a threat to democracy and the rules-based order – the foundation of our free, fair and open trading system,” highlighted UK International Trade Minister (equivalent to Deputy Minister in South Africa) Ranil Jayawardena. “The UK will always uphold those values and with our allies, we will protect Ukraine’s democratic right to exist. We believe that free, fair and open trade can prevent yet more lives being destroyed through the looming hunger crisis, exacerbated by Putin’s acts and develop a more sustainable, efficient and resilient food system for the future. Together we must redouble our efforts, put our divisions aside and harness the power of free, open and fair trade to tackle our modern-day challenges.”

The twelfth Ministerial Summit is the WTO’s first face-to-face summit in five years. It is also the UK’s first WTO summit since the country left the European Union.