Geneva, October 7, 2025. Addressing the General Council of the World Trade Organization on the Organization's reform process, Ambassador Rodolfo Benítez Verson, Permanent Representative of Cuba, advocated for a fair, equitable, and non-discriminatory multilateral trade system, without unilateral coercive measures or artificial barriers to trade.
He called for placing development at the center of the debates and emphasized that Special and Differential Treatment is a legitimate, non-negotiable right of developing nations.
Among the priorities that WTO reform should include, the diplomat identified the resolution of outstanding issues in agriculture that continue to distort trade; the reestablishment of the Appellate Body, as an essential condition for strengthening the Dispute Settlement System and the creation of mechanisms to definitively abolish unilateral coercive measures
The Cuban representative described the current international scenario as complex, marked by an unjust economic order that perpetuates inequalities. He denounced that developing countries are disproportionately suffering the worst consequences of the global trade and tariff war promoted by the United States, which has caused a high and damaging level of uncertainty in world trade.
The meeting was an opportunity to denounce the illegal and criminal blockade imposed by the United States government against Cuba for more than six decades, which has intensified to unprecedented levels in recent years. He argued that the blockade violates the rules of the multilateral trade system and the principles of the WTO, and constitutes the greatest obstacle to the normal development of Cuba's legitimate trade relations with the rest of the world.