As presented (transcribed from audio recording)

Thank you so much Mr Chair. Thank you for hosting all of us in this beautiful place.

I always feel very much at home in South Africa. One of the reasons is that we built a very strong bond between Norway and the people of South Africa during the times of apartheid.

We provided economic support, but we also actually imposed sanctions, as many other countries did, against the apartheid regime in South Africa. And we did so despite the fact that we strongly believed in free trade and open economies. But freedom is more important than free trade, and therefore sometimes sanctions are needed tools.

That is also the reason why Norway has joined many other countries in imposing sanctions against Russia for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. And that’s also why we don’t like double standards, and why Norway has imposed sanctions against Israel and taken action against companies which are contributing to the illegal occupation of the West Bank and the war in Gaza, violating international law.

I say this because we need to find the right balance between political tools – when it comes to sanctions – and ensuring free trade and open economies. We are concerned about increasing tariffs. We believe that increased tariffs will reduce growth and reduce our ability to foster prosperity.

So therefore, we should not misuse the idea of political tools to impose tariffs which are not needed. We believe in free trade, it’s good for all of us.