WTO helped build prosperity worldwide, says Azevedo

The WTO system has helped build prosperity around the world and lifted a billion people out of poverty in a generation, Roberto Azevedo, Director General of 164-member World Trade Organization has said.
The WTO now covers around 98 per cent of the global trade, Azevedo said in his remarks at the opening ceremony of the 11th ministerial meeting here.
"The system has helped to build prosperity around the world. It has helped to lift a billion people out of poverty in a generation. It has been tested and it has held firm," he said.
India is being represented at the meeting, which began on Sunday, by Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu who will be pushing for a permanent solution to the public food stock-holding issue which is crucial for operating the food security programme.

During the course of the four-day deliberations, the developing nations will resist the efforts by the developed nations to formally set aside the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and place new issues including e-commerce on the negotiating table.
India is keen for a permanent solution to the public stock-holding issue at the ministerial, the highest policy making body of the WTO and wants that the solution should be better than the Peace Clause.

Azevedo said: "Faced with a rapidly evolving financial and economic crisis in 2008, the world did not erect trade barriers as in the past despite the temptation to do so," .

In fact, less than 5 per cent of world imports have been affected by restrictive measures since the crisis, he said.
"Compare that to the 1930s when global trade shrank by two thirds... In the heat of crisis, the WTO did what it was created to do," said WTO DG.
He further said all the 164 members have an equal stake in the system, and an equal interest in ensuring that "it can continue to serve the people of our countries, our communities, and the wider world".