Ben Kalu in Geneva, Calls for WTO Action On Food Security at Parliamentary Conference Steering Committee
The Deputy Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, has urged the World Trade Organization (WTO) to deliver concrete outcomes on public stockholding for food security and investment facilitation, warning that prolonged delays are eroding confidence in the multilateral trading system.
Kalu spoke on Friday in Geneva, Switzerland during the 57th Session of the Steering Committee of the Parliamentary Conference on the World Trade Organization, PCWTO which had the WTO Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as a special guest.
Co-chaired by Hon. Bernd Lange of the European Parliament and Ms. Anda Filip, Secretary-General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU, the session jointly organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the European Parliament had in attendance parliamentarians from national and regional legislatures, European Parliament, IPU and trade policy experts.
The Committee reviewed developments in multilateral trade negotiations, follow-up actions from the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference, and the outcomes of the PCWTO session held in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Deliberations also focused on implementation of Yaoundé recommendations, strengthening engagement with parliamentary trade committees, boosting participation in PCWTO activities, enhancing cooperation with business and civil society, and preparations for the 2026-2027 programme and parliamentary input to the WTO Public Forum.
In his contributions during the session, the Deputy Speaker, Kalu who acknowledged progress on fisheries subsidies and development issues however said the WTO’s credibility would be judged by its ability to deliver for developing countries.
He expressed concern over the failure to reach a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security, 13 years after the commitment at the 2013 Bali Ministerial Conference, noting that Nigeria has co-sponsored the demand by the African Group, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group and the G33 for a permanent solution.
He said: “Thirteen years cannot be explained as an ordinary negotiating delay. Behind every delayed outcome are farmers, workers and families living with the consequences of decisions we defer”.
As an interim measure, Kalu proposed that members consider a waiver under Article IX:3 of the Marrakesh Agreement to cover qualifying public stockholding programmes, arguing that consensus should not render an explicit treaty mechanism permanently unusable in the face of pressing food security needs.
He also raised concerns over the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement, where overwhelming support has been stalled by a single formal objection, and called for greater accountability from national parliaments.
He suggested that parliaments should submit reports of concrete actions taken to advance PCWTO and WTO outcomes ahead of each Steering Committee meeting.
Kalu further cautioned that efforts to improve attendance alone would not resolve the challenge of parliamentary relevance in trade governance, noting that many legislatures are briefed only after negotiating positions have been finalised.
To address this, he proposed that future PCWTO sessions be anchored on a focused economic agenda addressing contested issues such as public stockholding, investment facilitation, the e-commerce moratorium and digital trade rules, to enable parliamentarians to transmit clear conclusions and areas of divergence to trade ministers ahead of negotiations.
Kalu, who joined the PCWTO Steering Committee in February 2025, secured reaffirmation from the IPU Secretary-General of the Union’s commitment to work with him towards the successful hosting of the PCWTO event scheduled for Abuja in 2027.
He reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to a fair, credible and development-oriented trading system.
“Yaoundé revealed problems that are already well understood. The challenge
now is to create political accountability for governments to explain what they
are actually doing about them. If credibility is the issue, accountability must be the response.
“I propose that before each Steering Committee meeting, participating
parliaments should report on concrete steps taken within their own
jurisdictions to advance the outcomes of Yaoundé and MC14, identifying the
responsible authority, the action taken, the government’s stated position and
the current status.
“Too often, our discussions focus on what Geneva has or has not done. We
should devote equal attention to what our own governments and legislatures
have done since the last meeting. Accountability must run in both directions.
“We should hold ourselves to the same standard of accountability we ask of
Geneva. Nigeria commits to doing so.
Distinguished colleagues, behind every delayed outcome are farmers, workers
and families living with the consequences of decisions we defer.
The WTO’s credibility is not measured by the sophistication of its rules. It is
measured by whether the members who need it most have rational grounds to
trust it.
“Nigeria is not here to add to the diagnosis. We are here to help restore that trust”, Kalu said.
In her address, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala presented an update on WTO reforms covering decision-making, development, special and differential treatment, fairness and dispute settlement.
She noted that while consensus ensures equal voice for all members, its application as unanimity has allowed single objections to block broadly supported outcomes.
The DG urged parliamentarians to move beyond criticism and propose practical solutions to rebuild trust, citing transparency and improved notifications as potential confidence-building measures and inviting written submissions on reforms.
She also backed deeper engagement between parliamentarians and Geneva-based actors, including national WTO representatives, the Chair of the General Council, reform facilitators and committee chairs, to give legislators a more direct role in the reform debate, while stressing the member-driven nature of the WTO.
Okonjo-Iweala acknowledged that the trading system has not served many developing and poorer countries effectively, defended the continued relevance of special and differential treatment, and called for a more credible framework that accounts for varying levels of development.
She equally underscored the importance of investment facilitation for developing economies and confirmed that restoring an effective two-tier dispute settlement system remains on the reform agenda, even if its eventual design differs from the past.