By Dionne Best
SWITZERLAND / BARBADOS – Barbados has reaffirmed its strong support for the work of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the 16th Ministerial Conference of UNCTAD, currently underway in Geneva.
During the General Debate, Permanent Representative of Barbados to the UN, WTO and other International Organisations in Geneva, ambassador Matthew Wilson, delivered Barbados’ national statement. He noted:
“We are living at a time of the greatest ever human prosperity, innovation, and potential. The task we must set for ourselves as a collective is to protect our global commons, place people over politics and ensure inclusive and sustainable growth for all.”
Ambassador Wilson underscored the importance of multilateralism for small island developing states, highlighting the:
- Urgent need to address the climate crisis;
- Importance of ensuring that Artificial Intelligence is used for good; and
- Need to confront non-tariff measures, unilateral actions and regulatory barriers that make it difficult for developing countries to use trade as a source of growth and sustainable and inclusive development.
Ambassador Wilson also issued a call for peace “including in our region of the Caribbean Sea, where we want to remain a zone of peace”; he reminded delegates that Barbados was the first small island developing state to host an UNCTAD Ministerial Conference, which led to a very successful outcome called ‘the Bridgetown Covenant’, and noted that the country was the first to host the UNCTAD Global Supply Chain Forum in 2024.
Additionally, he referenced the Bridgetown initiative 3.0, stating: “Barbados and many of our partners see [this] as a blueprint for discussions around fairness, especially around the reform of the international financial architecture and the accessibility of climate funds for the most climate vulnerable, including through the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage.”
The ambassador also commended UNCTAD secretary-general, Rebeca Grynspan for her leadership of a ‘revitalised’ United Nations Trade and Development, which “today is more responsive, provides real time, analysis, data, and advice, and is one of the few spaces where countries and members of all levels of development and all perspectives can come together to discuss, debate, disagree, discern and to decide.”
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