Liberia: Commerce Minister Reaffirms Support for WTO Declaration on Public Health

The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mawine Diggs, has reaffirmed Liberia’s commitment to the WTO Doha Declaration and supports the current African group position for TRIPS Waiver on health-related products including vaccines.

Speaking at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, Minister Diggs further called on her colleagues to demonstrate the true purpose of the work they were called to do by building consensus and delivering a win for the equitable health of the world. 

Chairing the G7+ WTO Accessions Group – 2nd ministerial meeting on the margins of the conference, Minister Diggs, outlined the core values of the group which aims at forging pathways out of fragility and achieving resilience.  She named advocates for the integration of fragile and conflict-affected states (FCS) into the multilateral trading system through alignment with WTO rules and the domestication of WTO-related reforms as a catalyst to transition countries from fragility to peace and sustainable development as the group's major objective.

Minister Diggs highlighted the need for continuous cooperation among member-states and the Secretariat in supporting acceding countries like Ethiopia, Comoros, Sudan, Somalia, South Sudan, and Timor Leste to meet their objective of integrating in trade multilateralism and acknowledged the WTO Accession Division's dedication in advancing the negotiations of the above countries in spite of the challenges imposed by the covid-19 pandemic.

Also speaking at the meeting were Ambassador (Joquin Kamrog??) of the Timor-Leste, Dr. (Francis Kaika??), Minister of Planning and Economic Development of Sierra Leone and Chair of the g7+ Group, and Maika Oshikawa, Director of the WTO Accession Division on behalf of the Deputy Director-General Xianhchen Zhang, all reaffirming the key role of the group to serve as a platform for facilitating the integration of fragile states and leading the development of the WTO Trade for Peace Programme for Fragile and Conflict-affected States. 

The Minister of Commerce is accompanied by the Charge’d’ Affaires (en pied), Liberia Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office and Multiple International Organizations, Mr. Paul W. Tate, Minister Counselor/Public Affairs to the European Union, Senve D. Tehmeh,  the  Second Secretary, Liberia Permanent Mission to Geneva, Abraham Kamara, Madam Esther Tolbert,  Chief of Staff, Office of the Minister of the Commerce and Industry of Liberia and Tom Tombekai, Assistant Director for Price Analysis/ IP & Trade Policy Analyst Ministry of the Commerce and Industry of Liberia.