At the invitation of the Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis; Ecuadorian Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries Julio Jose Prado; Kenyan Minister of Industrialization, Trade and Business Development Betty Maina; and New Zealand Minister of Trade and Export Growth Damien O'Connor, on June 13, 2022, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien attended and delivered a speech at the Discussion on Trade and Climate Change held on the sidelines of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12). Attending the event were WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and about 20 trade ministers of WTO member countries.

Delegates discussed top cooperation priorities in the areas of intersection between climate, trade and sustainable development, as well as ministerial involvement in the aforementioned areas. Delegates also expressed their views on the possibility of forming a trade ministerial coalition in the climate sector, and how to maintain regular and inclusive dialogues within this mechanism.

At the event, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien said that fighting climate change is an important goal to achieve equitable development on a global scale, and the key issue is the need to achieve the goal of neutralizing carbon while maintaining economic growth and improving living conditions for everyone, especially vulnerable groups. Accordingly, Minister Dien emphasized strongly on promoting activities in a number of areas through: (i) integrating factors related to the environment and combating climate change in commitments in trade agreements; (ii) promoting negotiations in the WTO in areas that are likely to bring tangible benefits to the environment and climate change, such as negotiations on environmental goods and services; and (iii) promoting activities in areas affected by climate change such as agriculture, food security, etc.  Minister Dien also raised Viet Nam's views on the need to pay attention to the specific conditions of each country, avoiding rigid application of environmental standards in developed countries to developing countries, either directly or indirectly. Also according to Minister Dien, the establishment of a coalition of trade ministers in the field of climate can be one of the ways to realize the above goals. Therefore, the Ministers need to strengthen cooperation and regular exchanges not only within the WTO framework but also in regional and bilateral frameworks.

At the end of the event, the Ministers agreed to promote the goals of the environment and combat climate change. At the same time, the Ministers also agreed to form a ministerial-level coalition to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in matters related to trade, the environment and combating climate change./.

Source: Multilateral Trade Policy Dept.