WTO must work together to ensure Ukraine can export grain — Varadkar

The World Trade Organisation must work together to ensure Ukraine can export its grain this year, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar will tell a conference in Geneva on Sunday evening.

In remarks that will be delivered at a WTO ministerial conference being held in the Swiss city on challenges facing the multilateral trading system, Mr Varadkar will urge the organisation to agree on a declaration by all members on food security.

It is the first meeting of world trade ministers since 2017, as they have been interrupted by the pandemic.

“EU sanctions do not apply to food or medicines and we must work together to ensure that Ukraine is not prevented from exporting its grain this year,” he will say. “The war has seriously disrupted global food supplies. In Ireland we are lucky to produce more food than we can eat but I’m conscious that is not the case in many nations,” he will tell the conference.

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The Tánaiste will say that Ireland has “benefited hugely” from international trade and that the economic model of the State is based on commitment to trade, free enterprise and strong support for multilateralism through membership of the European Union and the WTO.

He will say the conference comes as Russian president Vladimir Putin “wages his terrible war on Ukraine and its devastating effects on millions of Ukrainians who have a simple desire for peace, and to be further integrated into the European family of democratic nations. Ireland remains resolute in its solidarity with Ukraine and we urge Russia to cease its destructive and unjustified invasion and withdraw from all occupied territories.” He is also set to attend a solidarity event in aid of Ukraine.

In a pre-departure statement, he said “Ireland continues to be there for the people of Ukraine in their hour of need, following the brutal invasion of their country by Russian forces”.

With the conference also set to discuss fisheries subsidies, he will tell the conference that Ireland is concerned about the prospect of high taxes on fuel and its impact on the fishing sector, which is primarily made up of small vessels.

The WTO group in Geneva is also set to discuss waivers of intellectual property rights on vaccines — known as TRIPS waivers. In a statement before the conference, he said policy in this area is an EU competence but Ireland would “support any proposal that results in more vaccines being produced and distributed while protecting research and innovation”.

Mr Varadkar is set to meet the director general of the International Labour Organisation, Guy Ryder, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organisation.

Elsewhere, Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman said the system for accommodating refugees from Ukraine and elsewhere was under significant pressure, following a report on RTÉ about international protection applicants who have been forced to sleep on the floor of a Dublin hotel.

He told the 6.1 news on the station that his Department was looking to place Ukrainians in another 6,000 pledged accommodations over the summer, as well as “alternative accommodation options”. He said the refurbishment of units could accommodate another 3,000.