Ministry Statements & Speeches:
Costa Rica, Iceland, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Rwanda, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay, as members of the Future of Investment and Trade (FIT) Partnership, today issued a Joint Statement on Maintaining Open and Resilient Supply Chains.
As members gathered in Yaoundé, Cameroon for the 14th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC14) from 26 to 29 March 2026, the Joint Statement reaffirmed our intent to work together with other trading partners to ensure land routes, air and seaports remain open to support trade to flow unimpeded.
The Joint Statement recognises the impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on global supply chains, particularly for oil and gas, and risk of severe disruption to the flow of energy supplies and other essential goods.
Members of the Joint Statement will exchange timely information and coordinate approaches to mitigating supply chain disruptions.
The Joint Statement also outlines the importance of refraining from the imposition of trade restrictive measures, including export restrictions, tariffs, and non-tariff barriers, for essential goods.
Launched in September 2025, the FIT Partnership is a grouping of small and medium trade-dependent economies focused on the development and advancement of innovations in trade and investment policy and practice. The FIT Partnership’s objective is to support the rules-based trading system, and to contribute to a predictable, transparent, non-discriminatory, open and fair global trading environment.
Members of the FIT Partnership have previously issued a Ministerial Declaration on Strengthening the Rules-Based Trading System and a Ministerial Declaration on Supply Chain Resilience.
New Zealand will succeed Singapore as Coordinating Chair of the FIT Partnership in April 2026. The second FIT Partnership Ministerial Meeting will be held in Auckland in July 2026.