Enabling Indigenous Trade 2025

WTO agreements Recognition of Indigenous rights within the WTO has been largely absent, underscoring the need for ongoing efforts to ensure that multilateral and plurilateral trade agreements respect and promote these rights.7 One area in which there is growing acknowledgement of the impact of WTO member trade policies on Indigenous Peoples is through the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM). The TPRM aims to enhance transparency by periodically reviewing members’ trade policies. There is potential for the TPRM to provide valuable insights and identify disparities concerning Indigenous participation and inclusion in trade and trade-related policy.8 This could position the TPRM as a significant and actionable component of the WTO’s sustainable and inclusive trade agenda. Some WTO members – such as Canada, Chinese Taipei and New Zealand – have already taken steps to recognize the impact and role of their trade policies on Indigenous Peoples. Other references to commitments in TPR reports have been noted by Chile, Malaysia and Mexico. Australia, Canada and New Zealand have exclusions for Indigenous Peoples in their respective Annex 7 (General Notes) to the WTO’s Agreement on Government Procurement, allowing them to create set-asides for Indigenous businesses in public procurement.9 The US has a similar exclusion for minority-owned businesses. Further developments have occurred in the context of the WTO Joint Statement Initiatives (JSIs). In 2022, New Zealand reviewed the JSI on e-commerce – a plurilateral agreement co- convened by Australia, Singapore and Japan – and identified opportunities for a more inclusive approach. New Zealand proposed the inclusion of a cross-cutting Indigenous Peoples provision, emphasizing the need to protect specific rights and interests concerning Indigenous Peoples and their data.10 The proposed text would have allowed any WTO member to take necessary actions to protect or support Indigenous rights and interests, even if those actions conflicted with the JSI, and would have prevented such actions from being challenged under the agreement’s dispute- settlement provisions. Although the final JSI text adopted a more restricted version, closely resembling New Zealand’s existing treaty exception – which has been contested by Māori as inadequate – the inclusion of an Indigenous rights exception in the JSI represents an important incremental step towards the integration of Indigenous rights at the multilateral level.11 Enabling Indigenous Trade: Actionable Guidance for Governments 9