On June 12, 2022 (Geneva time), Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien attended the Ministerial meeting of the Group of Agro-Exporting Countries (Cairns group) on the sidelines of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) to discuss and agree on a number of contents related to agricultural negotiations within the WTO framework. The session was chaired by Australian Minister of Trade and Tourism Don Farrel. Participating in this meeting were Ministers and Heads of Delegations from 19 member countries, including: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Uruguay, and Vietnam. Ukraine attended the meeting as an observer.

The Cairns Group is an alliance of 19 agricultural exporting countries, accounting for 25% of the world's agricultural exports. It was established in the city of Cairns, Australia in 1986. The purpose of the Cairns Ministerial Meeting is to give countries the opportunity to discuss and agree on the key contents and priorities in agricultural negotiations, in order to achieve concrete results at the MC12.

At the meeting, Minister Dien raised three issues of concern to many countries, which WTO members need to prioritize cooperation to solve, including: (i) status of application of trade-distorting subsidy measures or domestic supports, affecting many important commodities such as sugar and other essential agricultural products; (ii) the application of special safeguard measures in agriculture resulting in unequal trade in agricultural products; and (iii) measures recently adopted by some countries following geopolitical and supply chain tensions, which directly threaten global food security and may lead to a number of domino reactions. The Minister emphasized that the two main goals that Cairns members in particular and WTO members in general need to agree on in the near future are to keep trade smooth, regardless of difficulties from the pandemic or geopolitics; and minimize market-distorting measures.

At the meeting, the Ministers agreed on the need to work together to promote agricultural negotiations in the WTO as well as to resolve pressing issues in global agricultural trade such as supply chain disruptions for agricultural products, food security, the relationship between agriculture and climate change, etc.

At the end of the meeting, the Ministers reached consensus and adopted a Joint Statement of the Group regarding the WTO reforms to be implemented in the agricultural sector.