It-Tlettax-Il Leġiżlatura Pl
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IT-TLETTAX-IL LEĠIŻLATURA P.L. 872 Dokument imqiegħed fuq il-Mejda tal-Kamra tad-Deputati fis-Seduta Numru 65 tat-18 ta’ Diċembru 2017 mill-Ispeaker, l-Onor. Anġlu Farrugia. ___________________________ Raymond Scicluna Skrivan tal-Kamra Parliamentary Conference on the WTO organised jointly by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the European Parliament 9 - 10 December 2017 Buenos Aires, Argentina Hon Anglu Farrugia, Speaker Parliamentary Delegation Report to the House of Representatives. Date: gth -101h December 2017 Venue: Buenos Aires, Argentina l. Maltese delegation: Honourable Anglu Farrugia, President of the House of Representatives. r r i Programme: The Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chairperson of the Small ·-· Branches of the CPA, the Honourable Anglu Farrugia M.P., on behalf of the CPA participated In the Buenos Aires Session of the Parliamentary Conference on the World Trade Organisation (WTO), organised jointly by the Inter~ Parliamentary Union & the European Parliament, with the support of the National Congress of Argentina In connection with the 11"' WTO Ministerial Conference, (MC11) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. i' '. '' r, ' ' " II ' ' Report by the Speaker of the House of Representatives AnQ'Iu Farrugia Buenos Aires session of the Parliamentary Conference on the World Trade Organisaton on behalf of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association on the 9th and 10th December 2017. During the whole morning of the 9th December 2017 I attended and participated actively in the pre-conference of the Steering Committee which was dedicated to the discussion of the numerous amendments of the final document regarding the multilateral trading system. Practically these were amendments to all the working articles mainly from China, India, South Africa and also the European Union. I stronly participated and supported most of these amendments that finally led to the final document, for example our position as Commonwealth I Parliamentary Association with regards, for example, to paragraph C of the final document, I l. strongly stressed the support of the environmental protection yet surprisingly this was continued to be objected by India and such amendment was not acceded to as it was on the original article. The same thing with paragraph 13, for example as supported by the Commonwealth on my behalf which finally was approved in order to take off all barriers to trade. During this important Steering Committee we met not only in the morning of the 9th December but we also had to convene the meeting late in the evening till 9.00 p.m. where in between I also attended the inaugural session of the lnterparliamentary Union and European Parliament with the support of the National Congress of Argentina in connection with the 11th World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference better known as MC11. The main theme of what can we expect from r r the MC11 was deeply debated by senior World Trade Organisation negotiators and officials. The following day, the 1Oth of December, the conference continued on various presentations of reports mainly concerning a-commerce and internalisations of SMEs and the role of •• multilateralism in time of rising protectionism. Copy of these working reports are also herewith attached with this report. I I ,, After the conclusion of the conference I had a meeting with two members oft he inquiry meeting being Director Dirk Willem te Velde who is the Director of the Supporting Economic Transformation Programme and also Maximiliano Mendes Parra who is a senior research fellow of the International Development Institute at the latter's request mainly focused on the Commonwealth policy priorities for trade and development in particular focus on small island states and small branches. Once they were interviewing me in the capacity as Chair of the Small Branches of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. Copy of the interview is herewith attached with this report. i I ' ' I... I ' ' During the interview I also made reference to the strategic plan for small branches within the Commonwealth which was recently approved during the special session of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association for small brances in Daka earlier this year. Han. Spea er o the House of Representatives r ' ~, I. r t i " I I !' I I ' ' II ' ' " Meeting with the representatives of the All People Party Group, held in 1 Argentina on the 10 h of Dec 2017 Mr Mendez Pera: I had a meeting with Secretary General of the CPA a week ago, two weeks ago in London, so we are doing an enquiry at the moment, about the role of the Commonwealth helping the countries trade out of poverty and following the Overseas Development institute, also with APPG; All-Party Parliamentary Group for Trade Out of Poverty, and we have an enquiry at the moment, and we had a number of hearings in the House of Lords, and one of the Lords is coming in two days' time, and the Trade Minister of Nigeria is also co-chairing and we have some contributions from the range of the Commonwealth Secretariat and also form the vice-council and we've talked to ; the CPA, but we are also hearing from Trade Ministers but also from Parliamentarians and from the business sector, from think-tanks regarding these issues and so, some i. emerging issues that have come up, that we think that is really important and that all the evidence suggests to us that It's Important for the Commonwealth to have an agenda on trade investment and to speak up for small states, to be conscious on trade, wealth and all around trade, not necessary deals as such, but perhaps more in terms of softer side which is trade facilitation perhaps! Coordination issues, we took this morning at the Commonwealth on the term iro the climate their might be some issues about, and so we are here to discuss what you think what the role of the ...' I, Commonwealth would be In the area of trade and investment, do you think should be I ; an agenda there, and what is the role of the Commonwealth associations as a shaded group. So you have a secretariat, you have a business group but also Parliamentarians, what is the role of Parliament of the Commonwealth? Mr Speaker: First of all, I did send you my detailed report, I know that you have a copy of that, and also the email about how I see it about the concept of, now we know that ' Brexit is going to happen, I mean, before I had sent you, I also spoke about whether I> ,, you'll have a soft Brexit, of course, my concern within the Commonwealth is that as you know there was a change in the Commonwealth Constitution, where the Small Branches in the Small states, those that have a population of less than half a million, II are now organised in a group, which I am the Chair, and I already presented my '. strategic plan for the Small Branches. Now one thing which I am really, let's put it that way, not worried but it's of concern, is that most of the Small States, most of them are small state islands within the Commonwealth, are very vulnerable for many reasons. I mean vulnerable for the fact that they depended 80%, some of them even 90% of the exports of their trade, with England. Number two is, that even if we talk about the state within the multilateralism, they don't have the governance to do that, so we feel and we strongly feel, that we have to continue, and the Commonwealth is an ideal, the Commonwealth Parliamentary I 1 : Group is an ideal, it's not an organisation, we are still working upon that, it's an ideal ' ' ' I, I I ,, ' ' lobby, where we can help each other, in order to build capacity, in order to deal with these problems. Now, I already stated in Dhaka recently, in the Commonwealth Conference, where I participated In many of the subjects, but one of them is, and we spoke about that, when the CHOGM took place In Malta, Is that the Commonwealth should seriously consider to work strongly in facilitating trade in the Commonwealth countries. I mean, I give you an example, I just came out now from the plenary, I mean one of the things . I that we discussed just right now, in this very important meeting is, in the Parliamentary I , group of the WTO, which I attended and participated on behalf of the Commonwealth, is that the European Union is making a lot of treaties with Canada, China, re trade and facilitate, WTO is lacking this, the Commonwealth doesn't even start. It is a population of billions of people, that they have a lot of values that they can share together, they have been sharing that for more than hundred years and till now, there is no structure t' within the Commonwealth where this could be done. Hopefully, and I said this in Dhaka, that after Brexit, England would realise that it should do something about it. r r Now with regard to the small states, with regard to poverty, because this is more I I important in my opinion, you have to address that small states when there is ! ; corruption, the impact is even stronger. Poverty rises up because it is even more felt 1 where corruption is present in small states and the effect of that is very strong. So L corruption has to be addressed and we know that you cannot talk about there is no corruption in small states, there is corruption, even if you want to state there isn't, I because things how they are governed, once there is no complete transparency, once !"' I I there is no mechanism that there is a proper watchdog and proper governance of the institutions, than you don't have comfort! So this is one thing that we are working on within the Small Branches.