 Hello and welcome to this IIEA seminar. My name is David O'Sullivan. I'm the director general and I'm absolutely delighted today to be joined by Angela Paulini Ellard, deputy director general of the World Trade Organization, who has been generous enough to take time out of her busy schedule to speak to us. Ms. Ellard will provide an address on the topic of restoring multilateralism and making international trade work for all. No challenge there, Angela, right? She will discuss the path towards the reform and modernization of WTO rules in the context of new and emerging challenges, as well as how the WTO can respond to the triple C crises of COVID-19 conflict and climate change. She will speak for about 20 minutes or so and then we'll go to Q&A with our audience. Just keeping points that you're mostly familiar with on Zoom. You'll be able to join the discussion using the Q&A function at the bottom. And you should see that on your screen and you can send your questions in throughout the session and we will come to them once Ms. Ellard has finished her presentation. You can also participate in the discussion on Twitter using the handle at IIEA. And a reminder that today's presentation and the question and answer are both on the record. Let me now formally introduce Angela Ellard and hand you over to her. She was appointed WTO Director General in June 2021 and frankly I cannot think of anyone better qualified to take up that role. She's known Angela for many years in our contacts in DC. Previously she served at the US Congress as Majority and Minority Chief Trade Council for more than 26 years. She's an internationally recognized expert on trade and international economic policy in the resolving of trade and investment barriers, negotiating trade agreements, and supporting multilateral solutions as part of an effective trade and development policy. She has negotiated significant bipartisan trade policy outcomes and legislation with members of the US Congress and senior presidential administration officials. She was a lawyer in the private sector specializing in trade litigation and strategy trade policy and legislative issues. Here is Dr. Cum Laude and her Master of Arts in Public Policy from Tulane University School of Law, and she received her Bachelor of Arts from Newcombe College of Tulane University, Summa Cum Laude, and she's a frequent lecturer and I can testify to her personal knowledge and skills and experience in the whole area of trade, which we have had some lively discussions from time to time Angela during my visits to DC, but it was always a pleasure. She's a fantastic professional, and I look forward to her remarks. Please, Angela, the floor is yours. Well, thank you, and good afternoon. Hardly, Gia, you've good to all. Thank you very much to the IIA for inviting me to speak to you, but especially for the valuable work you do in contributing to the public discourse on international affairs. And I would like to say a personal thank you to you, Director General O'Sullivan for your kind introduction. I recall like you with great pleasure the many productive and forthright interactions that we had while you so ably served as the EU's ambassador to the United States. Thank you as well to Dare Lawler and other IIA staff for organizing this afternoon's event. It's a pleasure to be with all of you today, albeit virtually. My theme this afternoon is that we can harness the potential of international trade to develop a safer, more prosperous and more inclusive world. And I will address the multiple and mounting challenges the world faces today, from global pandemics to ocean sustainability to climate change, and specifically how trade should be part of the solution. Even the audience who are not lucky enough to live and breathe trade policy every day, allow me to lay out briefly what I see as the foundation and strengths of the multilateral trading system. The basic economic idea behind trade multilateralism, which is embodied in the World Trade Organization, is that countries or economies can extract mutual games from rules based free trade, while still maintaining sovereignty and the ability to fight unfair trade and protect values, such as human health and the environment. The system is founded on the concept of non discrimination that you will treat all others in the same manner that you and that you will not discriminate in favor of your domestic constituencies. Of course with certain specific exceptions allowed. Another particular innovation of the WTO is that its member economies, not only negotiate binding rules, but they monitor each other's compliance and can resort to dispute settlement if needed. Our rules cover trading goods services and trade related aspects of intellectual property. It's not just about tariffs, but non tariff barriers as well. Everything and varying degrees from subsidies to standards to customs rules. Although the WTO is often perceived as a unified entity. I emphasize that it's far from a monolith. It consists of 164 members countries, customs unions and customs territories, representing 98% of global trade. Many more countries are in the process of accession. The WTO is truly global and growing. Everyone has a seat at the table and a voice, no matter the members size, form of government, economic system, or level of economic development. I should emphasize that decisions in the WTO are taken not by voting, but by consensus, meaning that everyone must agree, or at least not to actively disagree for a decision to be adopted. As you can imagine, consensus among 164 members is very difficult to achieve. Anyone member may block a decision it doesn't like negotiating international agreements is certainly the long game. Our last agreement which prohibits fisheries subsidies was reached this past June after 21 years of negotiation. We're not exaggerating, yes, but multilateral decision making by consensus is better than voting for several reasons. First, an outcome achieved by consensus means by definition that there's buy in from all signatories that they will own the result and will be more likely to respect it. The majority does not dominate the minority. Some issues can be managed only on a multilateral basis. These issues include the profound challenges of the global commons, such as the health and sustainability of our ocean climate change and global pandemics. These difficult questions place all countries at risk unless collective action is taken to tackle them effectively we need participation from as many countries as possible big and small developed and developing. Let me now turn to what the WTO already does and where it can do more to help address these issues. As you may know, a few months ago, our ministerial conference the highest decision making body of the WTO met for nearly a week of long days and even longer nights. At this ministerial MC 12 our members collectively and by consensus made important decisions that will improve the health of our ocean address the trade aspects of COVID-19 and future pandemics and alleviate threats to food security of the poorest. And they set the table to reform the WTO to make it more fit for its challenges. As you might imagine, getting our 164 members to agree by consensus as they did was nothing short of amazing, especially given the current geopolitical climate of food crisis and a pandemic. In the run up to the ministerial, the mood was not optimistic. The press had written us off and critics lambasted us declaring that the WTO and multilateralism are in crisis that consensus is unworkable, and that multilateral agreements are impossible. Our kinder critics proclaimed that the WTO and globalization in general were on life support, while the more savage ones simply panned us as dead. But they were wrong. Yes, we could have accomplished even more and our hard work continues. Nonetheless, it has been so gratifying to see confidence in the WTO grow, both among our members and globally. That confidence will allow us to strengthen our contributions to address the challenges of our time. More than ever, the pull toward globalization cannot and should not be ignored. You've certainly heard in the last couple of years calls for strategic autonomy, on shoring, near shoring, and friend shoring. As governments in business seek resiliency and supply chains. We can all understand to a certain degree, the trend to do business, only with friends and neighbors, given global uncertainties, even if increase, even if it increases costs a little, or even a lot. The consequences of taking this too far will be counterproductive, less resilience, more vulnerabilities, and greater exposure to shocks. Moreover, consider other unintended consequences of isolationism. Our preliminary research at the WTO shows that decoupling of the global economy into two blocks would slash long term global real GDP levels by about 5%. That's a conservative estimate, not taking into account the unquantifiable economic, social, and political consequences of having two systems of rules and standards regarding issues such as sustainability, labor, and the rule of law. At our 12th ministerial conference, WTO members proved that multilateralism is still their preferred option, and that delivering solutions for the global public good is possible, even in times of deep geopolitical rifts, let alone war. We must preserve and build on this success. Let me give you some specifics of what we achieved. First, we added a new agreement to the WTO rulebook, the agreement on fisheries subsidies. I can't overstate the importance of some estimates, nearly 50% of assessed stocks are overfished. Subsidies have played an outsize role in creating these dire circumstances. The agreement will pave the way to ensuring that the $20 billion spent annually on harmful subsidies can instead be spent on sustainability. The agreement will help curb the depletion of fish stocks and secure the livelihoods of 260 million people who depend on marine fisheries. It's only the second full fledged multilateral WTO agreement concluded since the WTO came into existence, 28 years ago. It's the very first WTO agreement with environmental sustainability at its core, and it's the first to achieve one of the UN sustainable development goals set in 2015. Specifically, the agreement imposes new and binding disciplines on WTO members by prohibiting subsidies contributing to illegal unreported and unregulated fishing. Subsidies regarding overfished stocks and subsidies for fishing in unregulated high seas. Its robust transparency and notification requirements will give us better data to target harmful subsidies. And it addresses the needs of developing countries and the least developed countries by creating a fund to help them implement their obligations and undertake fisheries management regimes to develop their industry sustainably. The agreement also contains an explicit built in agenda to build on what was agreed with additional disciplines and that work is already beginning. For the new rules to become operational and start delivering for ocean sustainability. The agreement must enter into force, requiring two thirds of WTO members to deposit their instruments of acceptance with the WTO. Given the dire state of the ocean countries must act with urgency and complete their acceptance processes as soon as possible, ideally within the next six to nine months. My plea to the policymakers in the audience today is to expedite their domestic acceptance processes so we can get going. WTO members also reached two outcomes to address the current and future pandemic. A decision concerning intellectual property rights and a declaration concerning trade aspects such as export restrictions, regulatory cooperation and trade facilitation. The long awaited ministerial decision on the trips agreement for COVID-19 vaccines is a tailored and targeted outcome that will help members build up and diversify vaccine production capacity, providing a streamlined avenue to export to countries in need, either directly or through international humanitarian programs. It provides concrete flexibilities on the practical steps governments can take to diversify vaccine production and export without doing away with intellectual property rights. It's a true win for global health and the world's most vulnerable. Now members are actively working on extending the scope of this decision to diagnostics and therapeutics with the mid December deadline. The ministerial declaration on the response to the pandemic and preparedness for future pandemics reflects and builds on the lessons learned during the pandemic. We've cataloged best trade practices to respond to the pandemic, developing a list of trade related bottlenecks and trade facilitating measures on critical products to combat COVID. Also, an indicative list of critical vaccine inputs, as well as a report on vaccines production and tariffs on vaccine inputs. We bring together government policy makers, international organizations, the private sector and civil society to share information and coordinate responses. To address the food security crisis exacerbated by climate change and the war in Ukraine. WTO members adopted a declaration on the emergency response to food insecurity. Members agreed not to impose export prohibitions or restrictions on food stuffs purchased for non commercial humanitarian purposes by the World Food Program. These are important steps to alleviate the scourge of starvation and human suffering, as well as to diminish the inflationary impact of food shortages. Members also reaffirmed their commitment to the WTO and multilateralism by committing to reform the WTO across its three functions negotiating monitoring and dispute settlement. Of course, what reform means is in the eye of the beholder. Now it's up to our members to collectively determine its precise contours and substance. Members also explicitly committed to work towards achieving a fully and well functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all WTO members by 2024, thus creating more confidence in the binding nature of our agreements. Members also expressed their interest in addressing climate change. We're used to thinking of trade as part of the problem contributing to global emissions and climate change, but trade is also part of the solution. Indeed, the WTO can and should do more to facilitate climate change mitigation and adaptation. From the drought in the Horn of Africa to heat waves in Europe to floods in Pakistan. Nature is signaling that we're running out of time. There are two ways in which the WTO can help. First, to transition to a low carbon economy, countries need affordable access to advanced technologies. Open trade plays a critical role in providing such access. Our preliminary research indicates that removing tariffs and regulatory trade barriers for a set of energy related environmental goods would reduce global CO2 emissions by 0.6% in 2030, just from improved energy efficiencies. And we could see additional gains from innovation spillovers as lower prices accelerate the shift to renewable energy and less carbon intensive products. We could start by identifying such green technology and ideally services and work on lowering duties and other trade barriers through an environmental goods agreement. It would benefit manufacturers and workers, as well as provide a source of cheaper green goods to developing countries. Second, the WTO could be a forum for collaboration on common approaches to carbon pricing. Countries are moving at different speeds towards decarbonizing their economies, resulting in significant disparity in policy approaches. While carbon pricing is a valuable instrument, there are almost 70 different schemes globally, covering less than 22% of total emissions. Carbon prices vary widely from less than one US dollar per ton of CO2 to more than 130. The proliferation of divergent carbon pricing approaches can generate significant trade frictions and create unpredictability for businesses seeking to decarbonize, weakening the effectiveness of global efforts to mitigate climate change. An optimal solution would be a global carbon price aligned with the Paris agreement. The WTO could work with other international organizations to develop common and non-discriminatory approaches to carbon pricing, while addressing the needs of developing countries to enable, adjust and inclusive transition. But climate change simply cannot be addressed through a bilateral or regional agreement. To be effective, we need multilateralism. The WTO, with its vast and diverse membership, can help develop a common approach. I'll conclude by acknowledging that multilateral consensus-based decision-making is difficult, but it's well worth the time and effort. Multilateral rules are universal and durable. They are the only way in which global challenges can be meaningfully tackled. Addressing the UN General Assembly in 2017, Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Simon Coveney famously said, in today's globalized world, we must live in each other's shelter, not shadow. At MC12, our members showed this is still possible, that they can muster the necessarily political will to address emergencies and problems of global commons together. We must keep the positive momentum we've generated and build on it together for the benefit of the people we serve, particularly the most vulnerable. Thank you, and I look forward to our discussion.