Geneva, June 17 (ABC): The World Trade Organization concluded a landmark bundle of deals Friday covering fishing subsidies, food insecurity and Covid-19 vaccines following hectic round-the-clock talks.
WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said trade ministers had struck an “unprecedented package of deliverables” which would make a difference to people’s lives across the planet.
The talks at the global trade body’s Geneva headquarters began Sunday and were due to wrap up on Wednesday.
But instead the WTO’s 164 members went through two straight nights before getting the package over the line at around 5:00 am (0300 GMT) Friday.
The WTO’s 12th ministerial conference (MC12) reeled in a deal to halt harmful fisheries subsidies after more than two decades of negotiations, and also reached agreements on e-commerce, responding to pandemics and reforming the organisation itself.
“Not in a long while has the WTO seen such a significant number of multilateral outcomes,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
“The package of agreements you have reached will make a difference to the lives of people around the world. The outcomes demonstrate that the WTO is in fact capable of responding to the emergencies of our time.”
With ministers struggling to conclude agreements on each separate issue, countries began making trade-offs across the topics that ultimately kept several measures alive.
“There were many moments when I feared we would come out of MC12 with nothing at all,” Okonjo-Iweala later admitted.
But after the conference went nearly 36 hours into overtime, EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis tweeted “DEAL!”
The “ministerial succeeded in delivering important outcomes, despite unprecedented challenges.”