UK set to champion free and fair trade under new G7 initiative

The government’s International Trade Secretary has set out her agenda to champion free and fair trade at a ministers’ meeting of the first ever G7 Trade Track.

As president of the G7, the UK will use the meeting to push for the reform of the WTO, so the organisation is fit to challenge unfair trading practices as well as ensuring trade helps tackle climate change.

Trade Ministers from the member countries of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, US, UK and the EU, will be joined at the virtual meeting by the newly-appointed director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss commented: “2021 is the year that we need to grip WTO reform.

“The organisation has fresh impetus under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, who has the resolve and energy to drive forward the reforms we need to global trade, and a newly-independent Britain is ready to work with democracies from across the world to ensure trade helps the world build back better from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Our G7 alliance of like-minded democracies is united not just in its fundamental values, ranging from freedom and fairness to the environment and innovation. It is also united in its fierce belief that the best way forward for us all lies in trade.”