Address by Minister Mauro Vieira at the Informal WTO Ministerial Meeting - Paris, June 3, 2025

Dear colleagues,

There is a growing awareness among Members that the WTO, in its current form, may no longer be equipped to respond to the evolving global trade landscape. 

While important efforts are underway, such as the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement and the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) initiative, it is increasingly evident that isolated sectoral outcomes, however meaningful, will not be sufficient to restore the Organization`s relevance. 

Over the past three decades, the disciplines of the Uruguay Round shaped and provided a strong legal framework for trade, investment and the protection of intellectual property. 

However, the global economy has since been transformed, as have the policy instruments and trade-related measures employed by States. The world we see today bears little resemblance to that of the Uruguay Round.  

A structural and comprehensive reform of the WTO is therefore imperative. We must go beyond incremental updates. 

Key issues include restoring the functionality of the dispute settlement system through creative solutions that address shortcomings perceived by Members.

Brazil is willing to have frank and open exchanges on the matter and to explore alternatives. Our bottom line would be a two-tier process capable of rendering final decisions and legal predictability. 

The credibility of the system hinges on its capacity to further liberalize trade in agricultural products, for big and small producers.

This requires levelling the playing field through reduction in trade distorting domestic support, additional market access commitments, and fair solutions for PSH, SSM and Cotton.

In thirty years of WTO`s existence Agriculture has been left behind. It is the most protected of all trade sectors, to the detriment of efficient non-subsidizing producers and of developing countries and LDCs, and their legitimate food security objectives. 

Reform should effectively deal with emerging issues and concerns, such as subsidies linked to the green transition and reindustrialization. These subsidies urgently need to undergo multilateral scrutiny and be brought into conformity with agreed disciplines.

Furthermore, violations or erosions of the principle of non-discrimination must be at the center of our reform concerns. 

Developments such as preferential arrangements with country-specific tariff rates and quotas, or unilateral and arbitrary trade-related measures to protect the environment, challenge core principles of the WTO. 

They raise fundamental questions regarding most-favored nation treatment, and risk undermining the legal coherence and predictability of the multilateral trading system. 

Brazil is also deeply concerned about the proliferation of unilateral trade measures framed as environmental policies, which are protectionist in nature, discriminatory, and unfair — especially towards developing countries.  

Brazil believes the time has come for the WTO to be reassessed and possibly reconfigured in light of current international realities. We are open to engaging in a process of deep reform of the system which takes into account the interests and sensitivities of all Members. 

I thank you.