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Geneva: World Trade Organization(WTO) members have held intensive discussions on the response to the Covid-19 pandemic including the IP response to the pandemic, and trade and food security.

The 12^th Ministerial level meeting of WTO is underway in Geneva since June 12. Trade ministers of more than one hundred countries are attending the session.  A Nepali delegation led by Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Badu is attending the conference. 

On June 13, there were thematic sessions on pandemics and looming food crises in the world. Due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, the supply of food grains has been badly hit resulting in high inflation across the world which has taken a central stage at WTO.

On the WTO response to the pandemic, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala noted the broad convergence on the Draft Ministerial Declaration on the WTO response to the COVID-19 pandemic and preparedness for future pandemics and on the need to resolve the five outstanding brackets, indicating areas still under discussion, in the TRIPS waiver decision.

On food security, the director-general stated that there was widespread support for the Draft Ministerial Declaration on Trade and Food Security — “almost a convergence although there are some members whose needs have to be addressed”. WTO is likely to make some declarations on looming food security on June 15.

Timur Suleimenov, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the President of Kazakhstan and MC12 Chair, said that listening to members over the past two days reaffirmed his belief that “credible MC12 outcomes are within our reach.”

 “I think there is a general sense that we can actually achieve in MC12 and that it is even closer than we thought at the beginning of the Conference,” he added.

At the thematic session on the World Food Programme (WFP),  according to WTO, members discussed the Draft Ministerial Decision which pledges not to impose any export prohibitions or restrictions on foodstuffs purchases for humanitarian purposes by the WFP, noting that the WFP takes procurement decisions on the basis of the principle of “do no harm” to the supplying country.

The facilitator, Betty Maina, Cabinet Secretary for Industrialization, Trade, and Enterprise Development of Kenya, said the draft decision gained massive support from almost all members with the exception of two. She said it has been a very productive meeting which underscored the commitment of WTO members to deal effectively with global crises, including the current food crisis.

She noted that she, the DG, and the agriculture negotiations chair, Ambassador Gloria Abraham Peralta of Costa Rica, will consult with these two members, with a view to achieving consensus on the text. She emphasized the consultation will not entail any change to the current draft texts.

“My intention was to get an early agreement on these texts so that we could focus on the Draft Ministerial Decision on Agriculture where more work remains to be done,” she said.

Ministers from Australia, Japan, and Singapore who are co-conveners of WTO e-commerce negotiations have launched the E-commerce Capacity Building Framework to strengthen digital inclusion and to help developed and least developed countries harness the opportunities of digital trade.

In a statement issued on 13 June during the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, they underlined the importance of developing global rules on e-commerce. They said electronic commerce is of critical importance to the modern global economy and is driving the global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Framework will bring together a wide range of technical assistance and capacity-building efforts to support countries participating in the E-Commerce JSI and harnessing the opportunity of digital trade through providing training and assistance to help to develop and least developed countries, the statement reads.

Geneva(June 12)-- 

Director-General of World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has said that the world is grappling with uncertainty and crises on multiple fronts.

Addressing the 12^th WTO Ministerial Conference that began in Geneva on June 12,  she further added that the war in Ukraine and the inherent international security crisis that comes with it, the health, economic, environmental, and geopolitical crises.

This is a time to demonstrate that multilateralism works. A time to demonstrate that the WTO can deliver for the international community, and the people we serve, she said. 

 The meeting attended by more than 100 trade ministers is deliberating multiple issues relating to the world trade system. The Ministerial-level meeting has taken place after the five years.

The WTO director-general said while many members took some important steps forward in Buenos Aires – for example on using trade as a vehicle for women's economic empowerment – that meeting didn't really deliver.

 Stressing the value of the multilateral trading system as a global public good which over the past 75 years has delivered more prosperity than every international economic order that came before it, DG Okonjo-Iweala noted that at a time when the multilateral system is seemingly fragile “this is the time to invest in it, not to retreat; this is the time to summon the much-needed political will to show that the WTO can be part of the solution to the multiple crises of the global commons we face.”

Now, more than ever, the world needs WTO members to come together and deliver, she said. 

Citing WTO economists' estimations of real global GDP lowering by about 5 percent if the world economy decouples into self-contained trading blocs, she stressed the substantial costs for governments and constituents in a scenario where WTO members are unable to deliver results and where they allow or even embrace, economic and regulatory fragmentation.

To put this in perspective, the financial crisis of 2008-09 is estimated to have lowered rich countries' long-run potential output by 3.5 percent, she further added,  and the 5 percent estimate represents just the start of the economic damage. Additional losses would come from reduced scale economies, transition costs for businesses and workers, disorderly resource allocation, and financial distress, she said. 

Also, trade decoupling would entrench the development setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, making it much harder for poor countries to catch up with richer ones. “This would be a world of diminished opportunities, even greater political anger and social unrest, and intense migratory pressures as people leave in search of better lives elsewhere,” she added.

Various thematic sessions will take place during the Ministerial Conference to respond to ongoing emergencies, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic and the food crisis.  Ministers will also have the opportunity to engage in other thematic sessions on fisheries, agriculture, WTO reform, and the e-commerce work program and moratorium.

Geneva: Minister for Industry, Commerce, and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu has said that Least Developed Countries(LDCs) have been facing multiple challenges in their process of socio-economic development.

Addressing the LDC Ministerial Meeting in Geneva on June 12, he said that supply-side capacity constraints, low level of productive capacity, inadequate investment, insufficient trade infrastructures, and digital divide among and within the countries are some of the challenges.

He further stated that the non-tariff barrier, among others, has been posing challenges in benefiting from the multilateral trading system. Furthermore, LDCs are in dire need of bridging the digital divide to participate in and benefit from e-commerce and digital economy in the changing global context, he said.

Badu is in Geneva to attend the 12^th Ministerial Level meeting of the World Trade Organization which began on June 12. The three-day summit will deliberate on various global trade issues. He further added that the meeting will be an opportunity to build our common position and make collective voices heard and addressed in the areas of our interest and priority.

Least developed countries are pushing for preferential rules of origins, service waiver, duty-free and quota-free market access, and flexibilities in the broader areas of agriculture, and fisheries, and supporting the recovery from the pandemic. Similarly, the reformation of WTO is another priority agenda of LDC.