The World Trade Organization (WTO), reached global trade agreements on food security and fishery subsidies

17 Jun 2022 , 12:25 PM

After more than five days of arduous discussions, the 164 members of the World Trade Organization agreed on a series of trade accords early on Friday, including obligations on fish and pledges on health and food security.

The agreements were hammered out during five days of negotiations at a summit of more than 100 trade ministers, which was considered a test of nations’ capacity to reach multilateral trade agreements despite rising geopolitical tensions exacerbated by the Ukraine conflict.
Delegates applauded when the bundle of six agreements was passed just before dawn on Friday.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director-General, told them: “The agreements you have made will make a difference in people’s lives all around the world. The outcomes show that the WTO is competent in reacting to contemporary emergencies.”

She had previously urged WTO members to examine the “delicate balance” required following nearly 24-hour talks that were extended for an extra two days and were marred by rage and allegations.

A series of demands from India, which regards itself as the protector of poor farmers and fishers as well as developing countries, threatened to stymie talks at one point, but trade sources claimed that compromises were reached.

All decisions in the WTO must be made by consensus, with any single member having the ability to exercise a veto.

The package featured the two most high-profile transactions under consideration: fisheries and a partial waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, which Okonjo-Iweala described as “unprecedented.”

The pact to reduce fishing subsidies is just the second multilateral agreement in the WTO’s 27-year history to establish new global trading rules, and it is significantly more ambitious than the first, which was intended to reduce red tape. The accord on fishing subsidies has the potential to save fish stocks from extinction. Despite being drastically reduced, it received positive feedback.

The WTO was split for over two years over a partial IP waiver that would allow developing countries to make and export COVID-19 vaccines, but it finally passed. Campaign groups have slammed it, claiming that it barely expands on an existing exemption in WTO rules and is too narrow by excluding therapeutics and diagnostics.

On Thursday, an agreement was reached on prolonging an e-commerce tariff moratorium, which is essential for the free movement of data around the world.