Next Sunday, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will host a meeting of trade ministers in Arab countries, in preparation for the twelfth ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization to be held in Geneva from 30 November to 03 December 2021.
His Excellency the Minister of Commerce, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Authority for Foreign Trade, Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi, will inaugurate the agenda of the ministerial meeting held via videoconference, with the participation of the Secretary-General of the Cooperation GCC, Dr. Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf, and the League of Arab States, the World Trade Organization, and the Federations of Arab, Gulf and Saudi Chambers of Commerce.
The ministerial meeting aims at coordinating the negotiating positions of the Arab group and defining its demands for the World Trade Organization, and urging the member states of the organization to facilitate and accelerate the accession of developing and least developed countries to membership in the organization; including the Arab countries seeking to join, and requires the adoption of the Arabic language as an official language in the World Trade Organization, similar to the United Nations organizations.
The meeting also reaffirms the request of the League of Arab States to obtain observer status in the councils, authorities and committees of the World Trade Organization, and its ministerial conferences, as other international organizations, and supports the efforts of the State of Palestine to obtain observer status in the councils, bodies and committees of the World Trade Organization.
It is noteworthy that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has held the position of coordinator of the Arab Group at the World Trade Organization for 8 sessions, since 2011.