The Trade Ministers from 164 WTO Member states were meeting up until the Wednesday 13 December in Buenos Aires for the 11th WTO ministerial conference where they will attempt to save face by agreeing on a very limited number of results.
The President of the Conference, Argentine Minister Susana Malcorra, announced that “Despite all the hard work yesterday we still have no agreed outcomes”. According to an announcement by the Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, early on Wednesday morning in Buenos Aires the really difficult negotiations were now beginning.
The ministers are expected to negotiate a limited package on a provisional decision on subsidies to the fisheries sector, including rigorous disciplines on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, a decision on a permanent clause for the reconstitution of public stockholding for food security purposes, as energetically demanded by India and the post-Buenos Aires work programme on reform of domestic support.
The 164-member countries were also seeking to agree on a concrete result for e-commerce and the domestic regulation on services.
Nonetheless, although there was still a lot of uncertainty up until yesterday regarding the position the US was going to adopt (it recently undermined the global governance system by announcing that it was withdrawing from the international Paris climate agreement and US President, Donald Trump, threatened to withdraw from the WTO during his election campaign), the approach of the US trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, was described as rather positive by all the delegations, according to a number of different sources.
In the five points of Mr Lighthizer’s speech during the Monday plenary, particularly the one on the status of developing countries demanded, according to him, by five out of the sixth richest countries in the world, we were informed that, “the US is saying out loud what a lot of us are thinking to ourselves".
One source informed us, “the Americans appear to be in favour of a WTO work programme that does not undermine the future of multilateral negotiations. They are now demanding fewer requirements that are too binding, such as those demanded by India and China, which are still calling for special and differentiated treatment as developing economies”.
The US request for reforming the trade disputes body at the WTO is seen by many delegations as a strategy to obtain what it wants in regard to restoring fair competition between major emerging countries and industrialised nations.
The US blockage to renewing the three judges on the appeals body of the dispute settlement body at the WTO is expected to be broached by the different actors during the conference.
On Monday, the Indian Minister for Trade, Suresh Prabhu, emphasised India’s support for the multilateral trade system and its disputes settlement body.
Addressing the press, he insisted that, "It is important to protect the WTO in its current form. We need more transparency, more democracy and more rules".
During a plenary session, Mr Prabhu called for development to be put at the heart of the WTO and also appealed for special and differentiated treatment for India.
He also stressed that, “countries have had derogations to GATT rules for years. At the WTO conference in Bali in 2013, we made a commitment to having a permanent solution or public stocks. We need to keep our promises". With this announcement he made himself a spokesperson for 600 million small farmers in India experiencing poverty and suffering from climate change.
The Chinese Minister for Trade, Zhong Shan, provided assurances of China's support for economic globalisation and for governing the multilateral system.
He warned against any resurgence of protectionism and emphasised, “no country can succeed in isolation". (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)