{"id":240267,"date":"2026-01-18T23:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T23:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/240267\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T23:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T23:39:10","slug":"new-zealand-accepts-vice-chair-role-at-wto-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/240267\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand accepts vice-chair role at WTO meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-103652 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Todd-mcclay-e1768775594273.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1400\" height=\"889\"\/>Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay, centre. File photo supplied<\/p>\n<p>Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay has been appointed vice-chair for the World Trade Organisation\u2019s (WTO) 14th Ministerial Trade Negotiation Conference, for a second consecutive time following his role at MC13 in Abu Dhabi two years ago.<\/p>\n<p>The 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) will be held from March 26-29 in Cameroon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am honoured to once again accept this nomination from WTO members, which underscores New Zealand\u2019s enduring commitment to the multilateral trading system,\u201d McClay says.<\/p>\n<p>He will depart for Switzerland next week for WTO ministerial preparatory meetings, FIT Partnership discussions, and bilateral engagements with key trade partners to advance New Zealand\u2019s priorities ahead of MC14.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe WTO and its rules remain vital for New Zealand as a small, open economy, providing certainty for our exporters on the global stage,\u201d McClay says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs vice-chair, I will work closely with the host chair and members to help deliver a successful conference, with a strong focus on advancing better outcomes for agricultural exporters, concluding fisheries subsidies reforms, the WTO E-commerce moratorium and strengthening the WTO\u2019s dispute settlement process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand is one of three vice-chairs, alongside Jamaica and the Philippines.<\/p>\n<p>Ministerial conferences are the highest decision-making body of the WTO.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese meetings are an important opportunity to strengthen relationships and advance initiatives that deliver real benefits for our exporters and economy,\u201d McClay says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay, centre. File photo supplied Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay has been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7893,24193,141423,111,43,139,69,1769,99964,141424],"class_list":["post-240267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-cameroon","tag-ministerial-trade-negotiation-conference","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-switzerland","tag-todd-mcclay","tag-world-trade-organisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}