India hosts 19th Meeting of SCO Ministers of Foreign Economy & Foreign Trade

India hosts 19th Meeting of SCO Ministers of Foreign Economy & Foreign Trade

• India hosted the 19th Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Ministers of Foreign Economy and Foreign Trade on 28 October 2020.
• The virtual meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Union Minister of Commerce and Industry of India Shri Piyush Goyal.
• It was attended by the Secretary General of SCO Vladimir Norov and Ministers from Kyrgyz Republic, China, Kazakhstan,  Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The meeting concluded with the adoption of the following four documents:

1. Statement on the response to Covid-19.  It highlights the need for greater cooperation for access to medicines and facilitation of trade.
2. Statement on the Multilateral Trading System of Ministers of SCO Countries who are WTO Members.  It highlights the importance of the rules based multilateral negotiations.
3. Statement on SCO Cooperation on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).  It relates to cooperation of intellectual property and include sharing information/experience on legislation and enforcement, cooperation in international organisations and other areas.
4. Action Plan for Implementation of MOU to stimulate cooperation within the framework of SCO in the field of MSMEs.  It looks at  number of areas of cooperation among MSMEs, including exchange of information, organisation of events and collaboration on research and capacity building.