Some delegations accused India of being intransigent on every topic under discussion at the WTO-where decisions can only pass with the agreement of every member.īut Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal insisted: “India is not a roadblock on anything. The new WTO chief wanted to prove that the organisation could still make itself relevant in tackling the big global challenges. ![]() The last ministerial conference in Buenos Aires in December 2017 was seen as a flop after failing to strike any heavyweight deals. The former foreign and finance minister of Nigeria positioned herself as someone who can bang heads together and get business done. Okonjo-Iweala, who took over in March 2021, hinged her leadership on breathing new life into the sclerotic organisation. Negotiations towards banning subsidies that encourage overfishing and threaten the sustainability of the planet’s fish stocks have been going on at the WTO for more than 20 years. The fisheries deal was the last one to get over the line.ĭelegations were frantically haggling in the early hours of Friday on the flagship issue being thrashed out at the WTO conference. With ministers struggling to conclude agreements on each topic separately, countries began making trade-offs in a bid to get several measures through in a grand bargain. The outcomes demonstrate that the WTO is in fact capable of responding to the emergencies of our time.” “The package of agreements you have reached will make a difference to the lives of people around the world. “Not in a long while has the WTO seen such a significant number of multilateral outcomes,” Okonjo-Iweala said. ![]() The ministerial conference also agreed on deals on e-commerce, responding to pandemics and reforming the organisation itself. The talks at the global trade body’s Geneva headquarters began Sunday and were due to wrap up on Wednesday.īut instead the WTO’s 164 members went straight through on into Friday, finally concluding at around 5:00 am (0300 GMT). WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the trade ministers’ conference had struck an “unprecedented package of deliverables” which would make a difference to people’s lives across the planet.
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