Minister Carr concludes successful week in Davos, Switzerland

January 25, 2019 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada

Predictable and open trade are vital to Canada’s ongoing economic prosperity and lead to high-value jobs for middle-class workers.

This week, at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, the Honourable Jim Carr, Minister of International Trade Diversification, championed Canada’s continued leadership in reforming and strengthening the multilateral trading system. The Minister engaged with many of his counterparts, global business leaders and others to showcase Canada as a key destination for international investors seeking a stable, low-risk environment for long-term investment.

While in Davos, the Minister chaired the second meeting of the Canada-led Ottawa Group on WTO reform as a follow-up to commitments the Group made in Ottawa in October 2018. Ministers discussed mechanisms to safeguard the WTO’s dispute settlement system, to reinvigorate the negotiating function and to increase compliance with existing transparency and notification obligations. They also endorsed a plan to begin discussions aimed at strengthening and enhancing the WTO’s deliberative functions.

Today, the Minister participated in ministerial discussions and endorsed the WTO Joint Ministerial Statement on Electronic Commerce, which reaffirms WTO members’ intention to work collectively to create a more open, transparent, non-discriminatory and predictable environment for businesses of all sizes.

Canada is working closely with like-minded partners to encourage the digitalization of trade in order to help open new markets for small business and benefit consumers around the globe. To that end, Canada launched domestic consultations earlier today to obtain input from Canadians on the types of commitments they would like to see pursued to further facilitate e-commerce, otherwise known as digital trade. The Minister closed his week at the WEF by joining the WTO mini-ministerial meeting hosted by Switzerland, where he briefed his counterparts on the outcomes of the discussions on reform and provided a frank assessment of the state of play at the WTO from Canada’s perspective.

On the margins of the WEF, Minister Carr was pleased to notify representatives from the United Arab Emirates of Canada’s participation in Expo 2020 Dubai, to be held in the United Arab Emirates, from October 20, 2020, to April 10, 2021, under the theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”. With an anticipated 25 million visits, Expo 2020 Dubai will provide a unique opportunity to display the innovation, knowledge and expertise in business and cultural pursuits for which Canada is recognized around the world.