The World Trade Organization (WTO) opened its 12th ministerial conference on Monday with hopes of reaching agreements on fisheries, intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines and food security, but also with concerns that geopolitical tensions could divide the world into two trading blocs, EFE reported on June 12.
The war in Ukraine, economic tensions between major powers and years of failure by WTO members to reach major agreements have revived the frightening specter of a new "trade cold war," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Ivera warned at the opening ceremony.
"Splitting into trade blocs could mean a 5 per cent drop in global GROSS domestic product," she warned.
The WTO ministerial meeting, which is usually held every two years, has not been held for nearly five years due to the pandemic. Over the next three days, the session will seek agreement on, among other things, a temporary suspension of COVID-19 vaccine patents to boost vaccine production in developing countries.
India and South Africa proposed it as early as 2020, and most developing countries have joined in, though a number of developed countries where the pharmaceutical industry plays a key role remain reluctant.
Food security will be another priority. The war in Ukraine has exacerbated inflation caused by rising food and fertilizer prices and the session is expected to negotiate measures to ease the blockade on food exports and facilitate access to these basic commodities.
The negotiations are tricky because, despite Russia's international isolation, the WTO system requires that any measures be adopted by consensus, meaning that each member (Russia is also a WTO member) has veto power, so any agreement must be counted on Russia.
According to the Website of Nihon Keizai Shim bun on June 13, the WTO ministerial meeting opened at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on June 12. The meeting will discuss issues such as food security and fisheries subsidies, which are threatened by the war with Ukraine.
On fisheries subsidies, the WTO has been engaged in continuous negotiations for more than 20 years. While some argue that subsidies that lead to excessive fishing should be banned, developing countries, which rely on fishing to support their economies, are cautious and demand exceptions.
WTO reform will also be on the agenda. The main focus is to restore the function of dispute settlement to resolve trade frictions between member countries.
The last ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2017 ended without a ministerial declaration, and the Trump administration showed its criticism of the WTO. It is still uncertain whether a ministerial declaration will be issued due to the different positions of each country on various issues.
The WTO's first ministerial meeting in nearly five years opened in Geneva on Wednesday, with 164 members hoping to reach agreement on fisheries, COVID-19 vaccine patents and strategies to avert a global food crisis, but differences remain wide.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the WTO's director-general, declared herself "cautiously optimistic" from the start. If the WTO's top decision-making body can agree on at least "one or two" issues, "it will be a success," she said.
Tensions were on display at a closed-door meeting on Monday, where some delegates spoke to condemn Russia's military actions in Ukraine. Ukraine's representative also spoke and was greeted by a standing ovation, a WTO spokesman said. About 30 delegates "left the room" just before Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov spoke.
Source: Reference Information Network
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