Delegates attend the 13th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Abu Dhabi, February 26, 2024.
Giuseppe Cacace | AFP | Getty Images
World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiators failed to break an impasse on major reforms on Friday, despite talks extending deep into overtime in Abu Dhabi, in what some representatives said was a triumph of national interest over collective responsibility.
The talks ended early on Saturday after five days of negotiations, which failed to see breakthroughs on agriculture, fisheries and other key issues. However, the moratorium on the imposition of duties on e-commerce data transmissions has been extended by two years, as a relief to businesses.
“On the big-ticket items that are necessary for the mandate that the WTO wants to deal with, fisheries, harmful subsidies, that just didn’t happen because there wasn’t a spirit of give and take,” said a senior European official. .
By the fifth day of the ministerial meeting, most ministers had already gone home, although India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis stayed until the end.
Classification game
Dombrovskis expressed frustration at the lack of consensus on fisheries, agriculture and wider reforms and pointed to India as the culprit.
“The deals were feasible, supported by the vast majority of members, but ultimately blocked by a handful of countries – sometimes just one,” he said in a statement.
Goyal, who has been vocal on these issues, was seen smiling and shaking hands outside a meeting room late Friday as delegates gathered in small groups next to a coffee shop.
India has been pushing for a long-promised permanent fix on public holdings of agricultural stocks, which some developed countries have opposed.
“We have lost nothing. I am returning happy and satisfied,” Goyal told reporters as the talks began to wind down.
Delegates had described the talks as intense and contentious at times, but WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala tried to put a positive spin on a difficult week, telling the final session: “We’ve worked hard this week, we’ve achieved some important things and we have not been able to complete any more.’
India, along with South Africa, had opposed extending the moratorium on digital trade tariffs – a move that has the overwhelming support of most governments and businesses – but later backed down after an appeal by the United Arab Emirates.
WTO ministerial meetings have failed in the past and this year’s negotiations, held in the oil-rich Gulf state of the United Arab Emirates, exposed fissures between some of the world’s leading economies.
BRICS dispute
U.S. President Joe Biden’s trade chief, Catherine Tye, told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday that if the talks failed, fragmentation among the BRICS group would have contributed.
India and China, key members of the BRICS group of nations, have been at odds over key issues, including investment. India’s commerce minister joined the talks two days after they began and after his Chinese counterpart had left Abu Dhabi.
Pacific island nations have also complained at the talks that they feel marginalized and neglected by most major powers, arguing that the proposals did not go far enough to protect fish stocks.
However, Fiji’s representative won a standing ovation at the end of the closing ceremony after urging countries to support future fisheries negotiations.
US support for global trade and multilateral groups like the WTO has been renewed under Biden. But negotiators were aware that former President Donald Trump, who dismantled the multilateral system, could win a second term in the US presidential election in November.
John Denton, head of the International Chamber of Commerce, warned that the weak results from the meeting should “serve as a wake-up call to the need for a more nuanced and constructive debate about the role of trade in society – both locally and globally level No country can gain from a weakened multilateral trading system.’
Earlier in the week, even formal acceptance of comprehensive negotiations to improve investment was blocked in an organization where all 164 members must agree by consensus.
A consensus on major deals would have elevated the UAE’s status as a global interlocutor as it seeks to place greater emphasis on multilateralism and dialogue, a shift away from the assertive foreign policy it pursued a decade ago.