What the WTO meeting left on ecommerce, fishing and agriculture

The ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) concluded on Saturday with a failure of the negotiations on subsidies for fisheries and agriculture, the two central issues of this conference held in Abu Dhabi.

The 13th Ministerial Conference revealed the deep divisions between the 164 member countries and casts doubt on the efficiency of this multilateral organization amid geopolitical tensions that threaten global trade.

“Despite our efforts, we were unable to agree on some texts of great importance to many of our members.” declared the Minister of Foreign Trade of the United Arab Emirates, Thani Al Zeyoudi, at the final press conference.

The director general of the organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, highlighted that the meeting took place “against an international backdrop marked by the greatest uncertainty of any time in living memory”.

“We have worked hard this week, we have achieved some important things and we failed to complete others”, stated the Nigerian economist, who insisted that “the glass was half full”.

The WTO, the only international organization that settles the rules of trade between countries, works by consensus, which requires the agreement of all members to seal agreements.

“The beauty of the WTO lies in the fact that each member has an equal vote, but this also has a costOkonjo-Iweala noted.

The organization had already been destabilized since the end of 2019 due to the paralysis of a mechanism that allowed differences between its members to be resolved, blocked by the United States.

But there were hopes to repeat the success of the 2022 meeting, which culminated in an agreement on fisheries and to restore a dispute resolution system by the end of the year, now buried.

“The WTO needed a good crisis and this one may make us realize that we cannot continue like this“said a senior European official participating in the meeting.

Agreement on electronic commerce

After five days of meetings, negotiations on agriculture and fisheries subsidies fell on deaf ears, with only a last-minute deal on e-commerce being reached.

“Although electronic commerce has been saved, we can talk about a crisis in the WTO“said a source close to the discussions.

The negotiations on agriculture came up against the demands of India, a very influential actor in each of the ministerial meetings.

The agreement seemed complex given the protests of farmers in India itself and in several countries of the European Union, such as Spain and France.

In 2015, the WTO already made the historic decision to eliminate export subsidies for agricultural products, but many members called for addressing domestic measures that distort trade.

The debates revolved around market access, competition and export restrictions, but also on food security which caused strong disagreements.

India and other countries called for making permanent a temporary measure that allows administrations to maintain public food reserves, but some delegations strongly opposed it for fear that an eventual release of these supplies would disrupt the world market.

In the fisheries sector, the WTO reached an agreement in 2022 to prohibit subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, fishing from overexploited banks and unregulated deep-sea fishing, which included exceptions for countries Developing.

On this occasion, the countries were unable to agree on the transition period granted to these countries and many delegations considered that India was asking for too long a period.

“Several countries expressed radical positions in favor only of their interests and did not allow progress towards a satisfactory compromise.”said the French Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu.

India, on the other hand, agreed at the last minute to lift its veto on extending the customs moratorium on electronic transmissions, but only for two years.

This moratorium has been regularly extended since 1998, when WTO member countries first agreed not to impose customs duties on the electronic transmission of digital products.