Home ›› 08 Jul 2022 ›› Editorial
The 12th WTO Ministerial Conference was held from 12 to 17 June 2022 in Geneva, Switzerland. Ministers from 164 countries across the world attended to review the functioning of the multilateral trading system, make general statements and take action on the future workings of WTO. The conference was co-hosted by Kazakhstan and was chaired by Timur Soleimenov, Deputy Chief of Staff of Kazakhstan President. Kazakhstan was originally scheduled to host the 12th Ministerial Conference but the conference was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The conference ended successfully with a package of key trade initiatives. The package is known as the “Geneva Package”. The multilaterally negotiated key initiatives are:
(i) An outcome document
(ii) A package on WTO response to emergencies comprising:
*A Ministerial Declaration on Emergency response to Food insecurity
*A Ministerial Decision on World Food Programme (WFP) Food Purchases Exemptions from Export Prohibition or Restriction
*A Ministerial Declaration on the WTO Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and preparedness for future pandemic (WT/MIN-22/31)
*A Ministerial Decision on the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
*A Ministerial Decision on the E-Commerce Moratorium and Work Programme
Bangladesh placed a number of proposals for consideration by the member states. The Minister of Commerce Tipu Munshi in his deliberation said that the long and medium-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economies of LDCs are yet to be fully assessed. The recent food and fuel crisis stemming from geopolitical situations has put nations in more uncertainty. As such recovery of countries like Bangladesh should be coupled with re-enforced national efforts and policy adjustments along with reinvigorated support from development partners. In this regard, WTO has a substantive role to play. He reiterated the role of WTO in rule-based trade and trade liberalization. He sought the support of the world community to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The minister stated that small and vulnerable economies were suffering the most.
A food crisis is imminent and restrictions on exports of food products should be waived to ensure survival. He appealed to the world community to extend a helping hand to LDCs to ensure food security, public health, and long-term development. He reiterated that illegal fishing subsidies were contributing to unreported and unregulated fishing as well as overfishing has been putting the fishing community to almost death due to starvation. Action programme has to be taken against such illegal activities. He further urged the world community to resort to constructive reform initiatives through the multilateral trading system. Reforms in the agreement on Agriculture would ensure LDC protection with special and differential treatment.
Bangladesh supports the capacity-building program of the Aid for Trade initiative. The Minister pointed out WTO’s failure to respond to issues like food crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring food security, protecting public health and long-term development goals. He urged the members of WTO to put human needs over profit maximization needs. He hoped that WTO would respond to any future food crisis and economic recession. He further reiterated the hope that graduation to a middle-income economy would not deprive Bangladesh of the existing preferential trading facilities enjoying, so as to allow LDCs to develop and expand trade. Poor countries degrade ocean health very little. As such any initiative was taken to protect the fishing community should include Special and Differential treatment (S&DT) for LDCs as part of the agreement. The same S&D treatment is to be there for LDCs in case of agreement on Agriculture.
A number of proposals made by the Bangladesh delegation have been adopted by the conference and incorporated into the Geneva Package. They are WTO reforms, vaccine production, abolishing illegal fishing subsidies, food and fuel security, agricultural reforms, and continuation of the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmission. Each of the adopted issues is discussed below.
WTO Reforms: Members reaffirmed the foundational principles of the WTO and committed to an open and inclusive process to reform all functions from deliberation to negotiation to monitoring. Notably, they are committed to working towards having a well-functional dispute settlement system accessible to all members by 2024. Since 2020, the Appellate Body has been dormant because of the US refusal to the functioning of the dispute settlement mechanism.
Pandemic Response (Vaccine production) : It was decided that eligible countries could override COVID-19 vaccine patent for producing COVID-19 vaccine by a member country without the consent of the rights holder. Further, it asked member countries to waive requirements including export restrictions set forth by WTO regulations to supply markets and member countries with any number of vaccines. The decision on whether to extend this to COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics was delayed for six months. Members reiterated the importance of trade facilitation and operation of cross-border services such as logistics, health services and IT in combating future pandemics.
To put a halt to the spread of COVID-19 a severe border tourism restriction that was imposed earlier be looked into and requested countries to encourage dialogue to mitigate the issue.
Fishing Subsidies: Global fishing subsidies were estimated to be around $35.4 billion in 2018 of which $22.7 billion were for capacity enhancing subsidies. The WTO was tasked by the UN General Assembly to deliver an agreement to prohibit harmful subsidies. Following a 21-year-long negotiation, an agreement was reached at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference to end subsidies to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and to the fishing of overfished stocks. Developing country members would enjoy a two-year exemption for subsidies granted within their exclusive economic zones of 200 nautical miles from the coast.
No member will be allowed to provide subsidies to fishing in the high seas, other than were regulated by a fisheries management organization. The agreement contains notification requirements and set up a voluntary funding mechanism to assist developing countries.
Agriculture and Food Security: In the midst of a global food crisis with wheat prices, 60 per cent higher in June 2022 than they were in January 2021, there was pressure for the WTO to deliver meaningful outcome on trade and food security. Members promised that any emergency food security measures would minimally trade distortive, temporary targeted and transparent and notified to WTO. They also agreed not to prohibit or restrict food export purchased by World Food Programme (WFP) for humanitarian purposes. Beyond these outcomes, members were unable to agree on a work programme for future negotiation in agriculture due to long-standing differences.
E-Commerce: The moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmission was extended, a critical win for the digital economy. The WTO members agreed to maintain the current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmission until the 13th Ministerial Conference. Broadly, electronic transmission consists of online deliveries such as music, e-books, films, software and video games. They differ from other cross-border e-commerce since they were ordered online but not delivered physically. 105 countries signed on the extension of the moratorium but India and South Africa refused, citing data from the UNCTAD submitted that extending duty-free market access due to the moratorium would result in a loss of $10 billion annually, 95 per cent of which should have to be borne by developing countries.
Bangladesh expected a lot from the 12th WTO Ministerial meet. As is known to all that Bangladesh’s economy is highly susceptible to sudden changes in the supply and prices of food grains and energy. Further, the country is on the verge of graduating phase. As such the country looked up to the 12th Ministerial to address our concerns arising out of the recent geopolitical crisis. Without responding to the problems some countries were resorting to imposing an embargo on their food grains exports and putting poor and vulnerable LDCs in a further worsening condition. Bangladesh called upon the WTO to dissuade the food grains-rich members to stop such an abrupt ban on the export of food grains. Bangladesh could win over the LDCs to side with our stand on the issues like public health, fuel crisis and other development issues of the LDCs, but it is sad to say that profit maximization got priority over humanitarian aspects. Even then Bangladesh urged the Western WTO members to be more helpful to poor and vulnerable LDCs like Bangladesh who will be graduating to middle-income economies. Bangladesh also appealed to them to allow the existing preferential trading arrangement to continue for at least another 6 to 9 years. It is heartening to see that Geneva Package has included a waiver of certain requirements concerning compulsory licensing for the Covid-19 vaccine, food safety, agriculture and WTO reforms.
The 12th WTO Ministerial Conference has demonstrated the willingness of the member countries to keep talking and working together, multilaterally, believing in the value of trade for sustainable growth, development and resilience in the face of crisis. WTO strikes global trade deals amid heightened geopolitical tensions. The conference was extended by a day and concluded on 17th June 2022, hoping that all decisions taken at the 12th meeting shall be properly implemented. The Director General of WTO hoped to have a more fruitful meet at 13th Ministerial. Bangladesh is satisfied to have most of its submissions included in the Geneva Package.
The writer is former Director General of EPB. He can be contacted at [email protected]
