Minister Pekcan: We Should See Pandemic as an Opportunity

Minister Pekcan: We Should See Pandemic as an Opportunity Minister of Trade Ruhsar Pekcan attended the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Ministerial Council 2020 Meeting with a videoconference. Minister Pekcan, who attended the meeting with high level officials of OECD member countries and representatives of international organizations such as World Trade Organization (WTO), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said: “Globalization and Recovery: Role of Trade and Investment; Increasing Resilience in Global Value Chains” and made a speech in the session titled Developing International Cooperation. Stating that the world has faced unprecedented challenges due to the Covid-19 outbreak recently, Minister Pekcan stated that economies have hit both the supply and demand side, bringing the fragile world economy to an even more negative point. Emphasizing that countries have learned lessons from the pandemic process and the importance of international cooperation is better understood, Pekcan said: “Free, fair and open trade and investment system, in which the WTO-based and rule-based multilateral trade system is at the center, is essential in mitigating the negative economic effects of the pandemic. In the pandemic period we are in, although countries resort to various economic measures to combat the epidemic, it is important that these measures are target-oriented, measured, transparent and temporary, and not create unnecessary barriers to trade.” Minister Pekcan drew attention to the fact that the structure of the production processes is also questioned and that relying only on certain regions of the world for industrial production carries a great risk. Pekcan continued her words as follows: “We should see the pandemic as an opportunity to design better, more efficient and more resilient global value chains. We must diversify global value chains while increasing the durability and efficiency of existing value chains.”