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This is an archive article published on December 15, 2017
Lack of consensus: WTO ministerial ends in stalemate
The non-negotiating mandate of an existing work programme on e-commerce will continue, as desired by India, among others, but no new issue on e-commerce was included in the agenda.
Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu delivers his plenary address at the World Trade Organisation Business Forum MC11 (Source: Twitter/@sureshprabhu)
The 11th ministerial conference of World Trade Organisation (WTO) ended in stalemate late on Wednesday as member-nations failed to set aside differences on issues ranging from the role of the trade body as a multilateral institution to public procurement programmes for food security, marking the closure of the biannual event without a joint declaration.
While a failure to produce a joint statement has precedents (there were deadlocks in Seattle and Cancun), what sets the Buenos Aires ministerial apart was the stinging criticism by a key member — the US — of the rules-based, multilateral trading system that the WTO represents. The US refusal to pursue a permanent solution to the issue of public procurement — as committed by it, along with all others at the Nairobi ministerial in 2015 — also cast a pall over the sanctity of pledges made at the WTO.
The attempts by small groups of nations to secure work programmes or negotiating mandate on new issues like e-commerce, investment facilitation, micro, small and medium enterprises, and gender — spearheaded by the developed world — signals increasing efforts to secure “short-term plurilateral arrangements” within the multilateral WTO framework.
For India, the conference ended without much gain or loss. While its attempt to secure the lasting solution to the public stock holding issue was thwarted by the US, it successfully resisted pressure from various groups of nations to include new issues, such as e-commerce, investment facilitation, micro, small and medium enterprises, and gender in the WTO’s negotiating mandate without first concluding the Doha development agenda that is crucial to the interest of developing nations. The only worthwhile agreement — a consensus on including a work programme on disciplines on fisheries subsidies with a view to arriving at a decision by the next ministerial in 2019 — at the latest ministerial was also in sync with India’s position. The non-negotiating mandate of an existing work programme on e-commerce will continue, as desired by India, among others, but no new issue on e-commerce was included in the agenda.
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