Dilma celebrates WTO agreement with praise for Azevêdo.
"The Bali agreement demonstrates our correctness in appointing Brazilian diplomat Roberto Azevêdo to head the WTO," the president wrote on Twitter this morning; Dilma Rousseff highlighted, regarding the global trade package agreed upon by the organization's ministers in the early hours of Saturday, the "broadly positive results for Brazil"; and assessed, contrary to what Brazilian columnists and much of the country's media think, that "the way out of global impasses lies in multilateral agreements, where everyone has a voice"; when Azevêdo became Director-General of the WTO in September, the mainstream press discredited the organization; the historic agreement could now inject US$1 trillion into the world economy.
247 - President Dilma Rousseff celebrated this morning the agreement signed between the ministers of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the early hours of Saturday, July 7th, during a conference in Bali, Indonesia, praising the organization's director-general, the Brazilian Roberto Azevêdo. "The Bali agreement demonstrates our correctness in appointing the Brazilian diplomat Roberto Azevêdo to lead the WTO," wrote the president in her [post/post/etc.]. Twitter account.
The president highlighted the importance of the results of the global agreement, which she called "broadly positive for Brazil," because it "facilitates access for our products to markets around the world by simplifying and streamlining customs procedures." According to her, the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference "strengthened the multilateral trading system." The agreement reached in Bali is historic and the first global trade agreement in 20 years concluded by the organization.
Contrary to what Brazilian columnists and much of the traditional media think, the president is of the opinion that "the solutions to global impasses lie in multilateral agreements, where everyone has a voice, and not in the imposition of the strongest over the weakest." In her Saturday column In Folha de S.Paulo, sociologist Demétrio Magnoli was hasty in predicting a "disaster" in Bali and the "collapse of the Doha Round." However, a consensus was likely reached at the conference just hours after the newspaper went to press.
When Roberto Azevêdo took office as Director-General of the WTO in September of that year, the mainstream media discredited the organization. Reinaldo Azevedo, a columnist for Veja and Folha, wrongly predicted a catastrophe: "Azevêdo at the WTO means that the rest of the world applauds our incompetence. Especially since the US, the European Union, China, Canada, Chile, and Peru will continue to make their bilateral agreements, regardless of Azevêdo's gospel," he wrote.
The package finalized last Saturday, however, is now receiving excellent reviews from the world's leading newspaper, The New York Times, which saw the final outcome of the WTO meeting in Indonesia as "a milestone for the 159 members" of the international organization. According to the American newspaper, the agreement "rescues the WTO from the brink of failure and will rekindle confidence in its ability to reduce barriers to world trade after 12 years of fruitless negotiations" (read the original article - in English -). here).
Fortunately, the predictions made by the country's media did not come true.