Building on the WTO’s long-standing partnership with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Deputy-Director General Jean-Marie Paugam visited IICA’s headquarters in San José, Costa Rica, on 5 May to discuss priority areas for future collaboration aimed at better responding to WTO member’s needs across the Americas and working for the benefit of the wider membership.
"Our members are currently in ongoing negotiations to further reform the agricultural rules at the WTO," said DDG Paugam during his meeting with IICA's Director General, Dr Manuel Ortero, and his technical teams.
"We are looking to strengthen our strategic partnerships with organizations like IICA who are mandated to support WTO members in effectively engaging in the multilateral trading system," he said.
IICA, as an observer organization to the WTO's Committee on Agriculture (CoA) and the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Committee, has been working closely with the WTO Secretariat to deliver technical assistance to WTO members and to support the committees with analysis and data from the region on critical topics.
IICA hosts the "WTO-IICA Reference Center," a go-to source of relevant information on the WTO for governments, the private sector and civil society. IICA also implements projects financed by the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) to support the delivery of the SPS Agreement. Under the cooperation with IICA, WTO members can be supported by the latest research and trade policy analysis on critical agricultural topics, such as food security, public stockholding, domestic support, market access and subsidies.
DDG Paugam discussed with IICA's leadership and its technical teams the idea of developing a more strategic framework for future collaboration.
Ahead of MC13, which will be held in February 2024, IICA will release a new publication with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) assessing the challenges in the multilateral agricultural negotiations and what they mean for Latin America.