Trade ministers from the 166 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have extended their stay in Abu Dhabi for the organisation’s 13th Ministerial Conference. The final session of the meeting, which is due to seal agreements, has been postponed until 2pm on Friday. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called on members to “go the extra mile to find convergence on the various negotiations at the ministerial gathering and to be mindful that time is running out to conclude meaningful agreements”.
As is customary at these ministerial conferences, all the subjects discussed remain open until the last minute. Texts on fisheries subsidies, the moratorium on e-commerce, agriculture and WTO reform were still being discussed on Thursday evening, and positions on these issues were still divergent.
As usual, India’s Minister of Commerce, Piyush Goyal, made numerous statements to express the difficulty of the discussions and his firm position on certain subjects, such as fisheries subsidies and reform of the agricultural system.
India is calling for a 25-year transition period for developing countries to ban subsidies that contribute to overfishing. On his arrival in Abu Dhabi, Mr Goyal also indicated that he was not prepared to conclude specific agreements until the WTO Appellate Body issue had been resolved (see EUROPE 13360/26). (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)