BUENOS AIRES: The eleventh ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ended in a stalemate, without any ministerial declaration as the US reneged on its commitment to give a permanent solution to food stockpiling issues of developing countries. The US' refusal to reaffirm multilateralism and the Doha development mandate in the outcome led to a breakdown in talks at the 164-nation WTO as several countries, including India, opposed the US position.
"Unfortunately, the strong position of one member against agricultural reform based on current WTO mandates and rules led to a deadlock without any outcome on agriculture or even a work programme for the next two years," India said in an official statement on Wednesday. India, led by commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu, also claimed victory in preventing any interim solution on fisheries subsidies and a work programme on ecommerce.
WTO director general Roberto Azevedo said WTO members needed to do some "real soul searching" about the way forward and realise they cannot get everything they want. After hectic parleys and no breakthrough in sight on issues such as ecommerce and farm and fisheries subsidies, the talks were ultimately wrapped up.
OUTCOME POSITIVE FOR INDIA
Though India was unable to push its agenda on food security forward, officials termed the outcome a positive one and said all of India's defensive interests were intact as it was able to prevent any new deal on issues such as ecommerce and investment facilitation.
Despite no outcome on a permanent solution, India's food security programmes are protected as the perpetual peace clause is intact. "We didn't yield ground or come out losers," said an official in Indian delegation. In fisheries, India was able to push the commitment to 2019, to prohibit certain forms of subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, and eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
In ecommerce, India managed to convince other countries to continue with the old work programme that links a two-year continuation of the moratorium on ecommerce with the continuation of one on TRIPS and non-violation complaints.
India's victory is summed up with no dilution in the peace clause, no immediate commitments to curb fisheries subsidies, and no fast-tracking of ecommerce talks. "There was no outcome which was against our interest," a second official said. The person said the key takeaway was that coalitions held out till the end and did not allow new issues like investment facilitation, MSMEs, gender and trade, which lacked a mandate or consensus to be taken forward.
"India stood firm on its stand on fundamental principles of the WTO, including multilateralism, rulebased consensual decisionmaking, an independent and credible dispute resolution and appellate process, the centrality of development, which underlies the DDA, and special and differential treatment for developing countries," the country's official statement said.
ROAD AHEAD
India became the second largest proponent of issues after the EU as it submitted proposals on six issues — public stockholding, special safeguards mechanism, domestic regulation, domestic support, trade facilitation in services, and ecommerce.
