G20 Trade Ministers Meeting will be conducted in Istanbul on October 6, 2015, within the framework of Turkey’s G20 Term Presidency, assumed by Turkey for a one year period as of December 1, 2014.

Within the framework of its importance for economic growth and sustainable development, trade has been one of the priority areas of Turkish G20 Presidency. Therefore, Turkey, after Mexico and Australia, has been the third country that organized G20 Trade Ministers Meeting.

Representatives of the G20 members and guests from Azerbaijan, Spain, Singapore, Malaysia as the 2015 Chair of ASEAN, Senegal representing NEPAD, and Kenya as the host of the 10^th WTO Ministerial Conference, as well as the representatives of World Bank Group, IMF, OECD and the WTO will attend the Meeting.

Minister of Economy H.E. Nihat Zeybekci will announce the results of the G20 Trade Ministers Meeting with a Press Conference, together with the Trade and Investment Minister of Australia H.E. Andrew Robb (the previous Term President) and the Trade Minister of China H.E. Gao Hucheng (the next Term President). The outcomes of the Meeting will also be submitted to the G20 Leaders Summit to be conducted on November 15-16, 2015, in Antalya.

The Meeting will commence with the opening remarks of the Minister of Economy H.E. Nihat Zeybekci. Then, B20 will present the views and recommendations of the business community to G20 Trade Ministers. During the following sessions, the cyclical and structural reasons of the global trade slowdown, promotion of the integration of the SMEs and Low Income Developing Countries into the Global Value Chains, and strengthening multilateral trading systems will be discussed.

The trade agenda has been determined in accordance with the general focus of Turkish G20 Presidency on “inclusiveness, implementation and investment”. Within this framework, through ensuring the implementation of the commitments that take part in the Comprehensive Growth Strategies of the G20 countries, which they have undertaken last year and renewed this year, including the commitments on fighting protectionism, the aim is to reverse the slowdown trend in global trade. With policies aiming to encourage the participation of the SMEs and the Low Income Developing Countries into the GVCs, the target is enabling inclusive growth. Related with this target, strengthening investments, especially on infrastructure, is determined as an area to be focused on.

Besides, another important agenda item that will be tackled within the framework of the focus on inclusiveness and implementation is the discussion on the possible outcomes of the 10^th WTO Nairobi Ministerial Conference that will be held in December 2015. The G20 Trade Ministers Meeting, just before the 10^th WTO Ministerial Conference, will be an important platform for discussing the possible progress that can be achieved in the Doha Development Agenda negotiations and for G20 to express political will in this regard.

Within the scope of the G20 Trade Ministers Meeting, Minister of Economy H.E. Nihat Zeybekci will conduct bilateral meetings including with European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström, US Trade Representative Michael Froman, Trade Minister of China Gao Hucheng, Minister of Economic Development of Russia Alexey Ulyukaev, UK Minister of State for Trade and Investment Lord Maude of Horsham, Minister of Trade and Investment of Australia Andrew Robb, and Minister of Trade and Industry of Singapore Lim Hng Kiang. During these meetings, the agenda of the G20 and WTO issues as well as bilateral economic and commercial relations will be handled. Besides, during the bilateral meeting with Singapore, the Free Trade Agreement between Turkey and Singapore is planned to be initialized.

As it is known, G20 is established by the 20 leading economies of the world, representing 2/3 of the world population and 80% of global trade, and is an effective forum in global economic governance. G20 does not have a permanent Secretariat, each year a member state from a different region assumes the Presidency.