Iceland would like to welcome the distinguished delegation of Australia to their eighth trade policy review and would like to express appreciation to the WTO Secretariat, as well as to Australia, for the reports prepared, as well as to the discussant, Ambassador Braithwaite, for his excellent framing of the issues for our discussion today.

Despite the geographical distance, Iceland and Australia are like-minded partners enjoying excellent cooperation in various international fora and sharing commitments to promoting a rule-based multilateral system.

Iceland and Australia share common interest in the elimination of harmful subsidies in the fisheries sector and Australia is a strong supporter of developing enhanced fisheries subsidies disciplines in the WTO. Iceland congratulates Australia for its commitment and active work in the field of fisheries subsidies within the WTO.

Chair,

Australia played an active role in championing the Joint Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment and is an active member of the Trade Impact Working Group, that is co-chaired by Botswana, Iceland and the ITC.

Furthermore, Australia is one of the members that have voluntary started to integrate information on their gender-responsive trade policies in the Trade Policy Review process.  Iceland submitted advance written questions on the participation of women in the economy of Australia and thanks Australia for the information provided.  The answers are very useful for the implementation of the Joint Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment and for gathering best practices.

Chair, Iceland appreciates Australia’s active engagement in WTO and their continued support for the multilateral trading system. We wish the delegation of Australia every success for their trade policy review.