As feared, against the backdrop of withdrawal by the United States from the multilateral system, the 11th WTO ministerial conference in Buenos Aires on 10 to 13 December, failed to reach any notable agreement, with member states simply agreeing on a minimal decision on fishing and a few countries committing to multilateral sectoral initiatives.
We failed, said Brazilian director-general of the WTO Robert Azevedo. He said that despite the efforts, members did not manage to reach any significant agreement. He pointed out that multilateralism does not mean you can get what you want but rather you get what is possible. He said they hadn’t had the necessary flexibility.
"We have to admit a single fact: we failed to achieve all our objectives, and did not achieve any ‘multilateral outcome. The sad reality is that we did not even agree to stop subsidising illegal fishing. Now, I hope that several WTO members, whose actions here in Buenos Aires prevented an outcome, will use the time following this Ministerial meeting for valuable self-reflection", said Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmströafter the conference.
In Donald Trump’s shadow. Due to deep disagreement among members, the conference ended without any ministerial statement, be it ever so brief. The United States was the only country that rejected any mention of members support for a multilateral system with the WTO at the centre.
The shadow of the US president, Donald Trump, who has clearly defied the body regulating the multilateral trade system, was felt hovering over the conference. French Secretary of State for trade Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said that in the answers and comments made by countries such as the United States there was the danger of the WTO being suffocated.
As a demonstration of the United States’ disengagement, their emissary in Buenos Aires, the US trade representative, Robert Lightlizer, left the conference on Tuesday after signing a statement with the EU and Japan implicitly targeting China and its massive government subsidies for heavy industries which are leading to huge overcapacity for example in steel (see EUROPE 11924).
India holds the WTO hostage. Despite their support for the multilateral trade system and the WTO, the two emerging economies that dominate the world economy , China and India, particularly the latter, helped cause the failure of the conference by demanding special and differentiated treatment is developing countries.
"We have to recognise that this conference has laid bare, more clearly than ever, the deficiencies of the negotiating function of the WTO. And the fact that members are systematically being blocked from addressing pressing realities of global trade. Procedural excuses and vetoes from one member or another, and cynical hostage taking, have led to the sobering result of today," said Malmström at the final meeting of heads of delegation on Wednesday.
India, which came to the conference with a single aim in mind, obtaining a permanent solution for 'public stockholding for food security purposes,' which would allow developing countries to store farm products beyond the caps set by the WTO for domestic support, and thus enable them to avoid complaints, is said by many sources to have caused the talks to collapse on an end to subsidies for fishing.
Agreement... To negotiate an agreement on fisheries. However, in connection with the UN sustainable developments objectives for 2022 eliminates harmful fish subsidies, the 164 WTO member states agreed to negotiate an agreement on exhaustive and is effective discipline in terms of some forms of fish subsidies that lead to overcapacity and overfishing. An agreement to eliminate 'illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing’ while recognising special and differentiated treatment for the least advanced countries and developing countries will form part of these negotiations.
No progress on agriculture. The member states did not make any progress however on agriculture, failing to agree on any programme post-Buenos Aires on the three main pillars of the WTO talks: 'domestic support', export competition and market access. Negotiations will continue at the farm negotiating committee without any guidelines on priority issues.
Due to obstruction from the US, a permanent solution to public storage has been postponed indefinitely the so-called peace clause that temporarily allows developing countries to store farm products beyond the limits set by the WTO for internal support having been de facto extended for programs already notified to the WTO.
"From the agriculture perspective, it is very disappointing that a work programme could not be agreed post Buenos Aires. That means that important issues such as food security will not now be prioritised in the work of the WTO. This is not in the interest of farmers and rural people in the developing world, nor in the developed world for that matter. This is a lose-lose outcome for all involved - a negative-sum outcome," regretted Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan.
Plurilateral initiatives on new questions. The member states regretfully agreed to extend for two years the moratorium on customs duty on electronic transmissions and the moratorium on complaints about non-violation of the WTO agreement on aspects of intellectual property that affect trade (ADPIC).
Moreover, as a silver lining to the general cloudy atmosphere, voluntary coalitions of countries, headed by OECD countries but including developing countries, which wish to make progress on new questions not covered by the Doha trade round (agriculture, industrial products and services) issued declarations on a number of plurilateral initiatives on: e-commerce; - establishing informal work programmes at the WTO on SMEs; - facilitating investments in service of development; - an internal regulation of services.
NGO Notre monde n’est pas à vendre (OWINFS) said this illustrates the deep division among the poorest countries, which are calling on WTO members to keep their promises to deal with pending development issues, and the richest countries, which are abandoning their promises and moving in the direction of trade rules in their own interests.
Headed by Sierra Leone and Iceland and actively backed by Canada and the EU, 120 WTO member and observer countries, in collaboration with the International Trade Centre, have committed to establishing a platform to lift obstacles to women’s economic autonomy (see EUROPE 11925).
Finally, the 164-member states agreed to set up a working group to examine South Sudan’s request to join the WTO after a long and bloody conflict. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)