Davos, Switzerland – At the sidelines of the 50th World Economic Forum, Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez announced that the Philippines is formally joining the group of WTO Members in developing a multilateral framework for foreign direct investment under the Joint Initiative on Investment Facilitation for Development.
This move is in preparation for the 12th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC12) to be held in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan in June this year. Secretary Lopez said that the country will also participate in crafting new rules on the trade-related aspects of e-commerce under the Joint Statement Initiative on Electronic Commerce.
The Philippines was an original signatory of the Joint Statement on Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and the Buenos Aires Declaration on Women and Trade. Both were issued at the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC11) held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in December 2017.
While actively joining said Joint Initiatives, the Philippines continues to be a staunch advocate of the Doha Development Agenda, particularly its existing negotiating mandate in agriculture, and this position was reiterated by Secretary Lopez at the Ministerial Meeting of the Cairns Group held in Davos on 23 January 2020.
