Agenda in Geneva: Foreign Minister Mondino met with top ILO and WTO authorities

Today in Geneva, Foreign Minister Diana Mondino continued with her broad agenda as part of her official visit to the Swiss Confederation and the Republic of Austria, and, on the second day, she first met with the Director General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Gilbert Houngbo. She then held a bilateral meeting with the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and a meeting with the Vice-President for Countries of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Anabel González.

During her meeting with the ILO authority, which lasted over an hour, the Foreign Minister expressed "Argentina's renewed commitment to continue collaborating and deepening its association with the Organization in all aspects related to labour", while also reaffirming "Argentina's commitment to social dialogue, as reflected by the recent establishment of a Table for Social Dialogue in the country."

Director General Gilbert Houngbo recognized Argentina's commitment, renewed ILO's support for the initiative and was interested in learning about the development of the meetings held by the Table. Mondino informed that "the Table has already held three meetings, which has contributed to reducing conflicts and solving issues in key sectors, such as the dairy and energy sectors." "We really value and appreciate ILO's support in these cases, which highlights the key role the Organization plays in the process," she stated.

In addition, the Foreign Minister stressed that "the participation of ILO strengthens both national and international efforts to manage the programme of labour reforms being carried out by the Ministry of Human Capital with the Secretary of Labour, which has a significant political impact. Such support is fundamental to promote employment policies, the transition from informal to formal work and vocational training."

To conclude, the Foreign Minister also conveyed to the Director General our country's interest in the establishment in Argentina of an ILO office providing technical advice for MERCOSUR.

Argentina is a member and founder of ILO, and joint cooperation reinforces the legitimacy of Argentina's labour policies, especially in the context of Argentina's accession to the OECD.

At the WTO headquarters, Foreign Minister Mondino met with the IDB Vice-President for Countries, Anabel González, and they addressed the fundamental role of investments in Argentina's economic growth and reinsertion into the global economy.

The Vice-President was particularly interested in learning about the details of the state of Argentina's OECD accession process, including the recent visit by OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann to Argentina and they discussed collaboration and cooperation opportunities related to the incorporation of Argentina into the organization. She also recalled the assistance given by the IDB to other countries in the region throughout their OECD accession process.

In addition, she was given details on the state of the negotiations on the MERCOSUR-EU agreement, one of the priority initiatives aimed at the full integration of Argentina, and Anabel González offered cooperation in that regard.

Finally, they discussed modalities to facilitate investments through simplification, modernization and harmonization of procedures, a central aspect of the efforts of countries that, like Argentina, seek to consolidate a favourable investment environment.

Mondino later met with the WTO Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and ratified "Argentina's commitment to multilateralism, free trade and the reduction of distortions in trade in general and in agriculture in particular", hoping that the DG´s. will guarantee significant results in that field in the next ministerial conference.

"Argentina is a very important member, due to its positions on various issues and its active and positive role. If Argentina is successful, other countries will be successful as well," stated the Director-General in her warm welcome. In addition, she called on Argentina to continue on this path and agreed on the paramount importance of agriculture for food security.

The head of the Organization was also interested in learning about ongoing economic reforms in Argentina, expectations and plans for future reforms, and recognized that the economic indicators were very positive and encouraging.

Given the current political and economic context in Argentina, the Director-General called for "Argentina's leadership at the WTO" and, in particular, in negotiating the liberalization of trade with more reluctant countries.

The Foreign Minister thanked her for her interest and positive impressions and added: "At a time when multilateral agreements are scarce, Argentina welcomes the advances made with the Agreement on Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD), the electronic commerce agreement and the agreement on additional provisions on fisheries subsidies", hoping for their prompt inclusion in the WTO legal framework. In addition, she reiterated the importance that Argentina gives to the efforts made to normalize the functioning of the dispute settlement system, of which Argentina is a frequent user.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, with a long academic and political career, took office on 1 March 2021 and thus became the first woman and the first African to hold that position.

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