Good afternoon and thank you for attending this Forum session.

We continue to operate in the middle of a major international shock that has spread from origins within financial institutions to a widespread economic recession which has resulted in sharp declines in trade flows. I see the OECD itself is currently estimating a 13% drop in trade (by value) in 2009.  

What is mystifying is that despite our sophisticated grasp of markets and economics, one of the consequences of the global financial crisis has been the advance of protectionist measures as countries look to ‘defend' their own interests. 

Trade is a hard sell politically in the current economic climate. But history tells us that beggar thy neighbour policies do not protect: it is evident that the more countries try to ‘protect' themselves by isolating their economies, the more both exports and imports decline, leading to further job losses.

This is truer than ever, given the increased interconnectedness of economies in this globalised world and the importance of trade for so many countries' economies.

Despite some talk of "green shoots" recovery, we are not out of the woods.   We also know that recovery, when it comes, will be slow. In the meantime, we are seeing increasing signs of the social impacts of the crisis, including rising unemployment in a number of countries. This will increase the pressure on governments to "do something" to protect jobs at home.  

So what can we do to keep markets open?

Concluding the multilateral WTO Doha Round must remain the number one priority. Not only would a successful conclusion to the Round result in a reduction in trade barriers worldwide, but it is also the key to global agricultural reform - a pathway to prosperity for many developing economies. 

No other mechanism has the potential to deliver such comprehensive global reductions to trade barriers or to address the huge market distortions faced in the form of agricultural subsidies. 

We should not delude ourselves. Negotiating a multilateral agreement between 153 member countries is difficult at the best of times. However, with the World Bank projecting world economic growth projected to fall to 2.9% in 2009, and world trade to fall by 10%, this is clearly not the "best of times." 

But there have been some encouraging signs in recent weeks of political re-engagement, particularly from key players in the negotiations. A lot of the difficult technical work has been done over the last seven years - we must build on this progress and engage intensively in a Geneva process which provides members with a clear sense of the likely benefits of a deal. 

A successful conclusion to the Round would also be an effective, long-term insurance policy against the introduction of further trade-restrictive and welfare reducing policy measures.

In the interim, we must strengthen and live up to our commitments not to introduce protectionist measures. Lifting tariffs is not the only form of protectionism which acts to restrict or distort trade and investment flows.

Protectionist measures can happen behind the border, in the form of new, and in some cases non-transparent, import requirements. Stimulus packages to domestic industry can distort trade flows in domestic and international markets. Other types of subsidies, particularly export subsidies, are the most egregious, given their distorting effects on trade. There may also be a temptation to resort to trade remedy tools to protect domestic industry.

While I welcome steps by Ministers at this meeting to endorse a commitment made by the G20 in London and a call to resist protectionism in all its forms, frankly we have not seen all G20 members "walk the talk".  

Commitments to resist protectionism must also include desisting from WTO consistent measures which distort or impede legitimate trade. If full recourse was made to such ostensibly ‘legal' measures, we would see a further 11% decrease in world trade. This is the last thing we need right now. Leadership must be provided from the significant players in international trade.

Finally, we will all benefit from better information about the impact of protectionist measures on trade flows and net welfare. I would welcome therefore Ministerial direction to the OECD to intensify its work on the short-term and longer-terms effects of policy responses to the economic crisis. 

This work will be useful in helping governments to identify and implement policy approaches that are the most effective and least trade distorting.