The OACPS Geneva Group convened a brainstorming session on 8-9 March 2021 to take stock of the current state of World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations and to define the group's needs and priorities for the WTO Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12). The session identified WTO reform, WTO response to COVID -19 pandemic, services and e-commerce, agriculture (domestic support, Public Stockholding, Special Safeguard mechanism and cotton), fisheries subsidies, Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) as the key priorities for the OACPS Group.

The OACPS Secretary-General, the Director-General of the WTO, the Acting Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (ITC) participated in a High Level segment at the brainstorming session. In his intervention, the OACPS Secretary-General expressed his appreciation on the determination of the OACPS Geneva Group to ensure that the voices of the members of the OACPS are heard in the WTO, and in advancing their interests in the negotiations, urged unity and solidarity, and underlined the Secretariat’s commitment to fully support all of all Member States in their sustainable development efforts.