The 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ended with a number of successes, but above all with commitments to work hard to conclude other issues (see EUROPE 12974/2). Following a General Council meeting in Geneva on Friday 7 October, the organisation’s Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, reiterated that there are still many issues to be dealt with between now and the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) and that waiting for MC13 to achieve results was not necessarily required.
Cameroon and the United Arab Emirates have both bid to host MC13, which is expected to take place before December 2023. Consultations will take place in the coming weeks to reach a decision, if possible before November.
WTO reform
Most delegations see WTO reform as a priority among the various tasks. This is also widely raised by civil society, according to Ms Okonjo-Iweala. However, this is a major task and achieving a complete and concrete result by the next MC13 seems challenging.
Therefore, the Director-General has suggested that members identify one or two key issues on which to focus and achieve results. The WTO dispute settlement system is, in this sense, a priority.
Health and Covid-19
Intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines are among the issues still to be resolved in Geneva. Members agreed on flexibilities for developing countries to produce vaccine doses without holding the patent. They also gave themselves 6 months to decide whether to extend these flexibilities to treatments and diagnostic tools.
Discussions at the WTO on this issue are currently making little progress (see EUROPE 13035/28) and the Director-General is concerned about this. A consensus must be reached by 17 December.
Fisheries subsidies
An agreement was reached at the last minute in June to combat subsidies for illegal fishing. However, some issues still need to be addressed. This is the case for subsidies contributing to overfishing and overcapacity, which were removed from the agreement to satisfy certain countries such as India. Members had committed to revisit this issue with the aim of extending the scope of the agreement to strengthen its impact.
In addition, two-thirds of the members must deposit their instrument of acceptance at the WTO for the June text to enter into force. The Director-General called on members to do so, otherwise the fisheries agreement will disappear before it is even implemented.
Agriculture
This was the major thing lacking in terms of results from MC12: a consensus could not be reached on reforming the global agricultural system. Members only managed to adopt two ministerial declarations on food security.
The Director-General asked members to urgently commit to this reform, which she said requires a new approach.
“This work could not be more urgent as people struggle with high food prices, and global agricultural production is confronted with climate risks, water scarcity and supply chain issues for fertiliser, seeds and other key inputs”, she said. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)