Deputy Speaker Kalu Urges WTO Action on Food Security

Hon Benjamin Kalu, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, called on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to produce tangible results regarding public stockholding for food security and investment facilitation. Speaking on Friday in Geneva, Switzerland, during the 57th Session of the Steering Committee of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO (PCWTO), Kalu warned that ongoing delays are undermining confidence in the multilateral trading system.

The session featured WTO Director-General Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as a special guest and was co-chaired by Hon Bernd Lange of the European Parliament and Ms. Anda Filip, secretary-general of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Kalu expressed concern over the lack of a permanent solution on public stockholding, 13 years after the 2013 Bali Ministerial Conference commitment.

He proposed a waiver under Article IX:3 of the Marrakesh Agreement for qualifying public stockholding programs. Kalu also addressed the stalled Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement and urged national parliaments to report on actions taken to advance WTO outcomes.