Tok Pa to attend WTO meeting in Nairobi

INDEPENDENT MEDIA Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies. “Groups of countries have struck sectoral deals”, Froman said.

Despite India demanding specific commitments on the SSM, the text just talks about work on the SSM for developing countries being pursued at the WTO without any mention of the structure and by when it would be delivered. These include support for the least developed countries.

As progress has stalled, nations have thrashed out deals that aren’t fully governed by the WTO.

“The WTO has to adjust to a changing world environment”, Wilma Viviers, director of the TRADE research unit at South Africa’s North-West University, said by phone on December 9.

PCFS blamed the US, European Union, Canada and Australia for blocking a long-lasting agreement on public stockholding programmes for food security, which it said could benefit developing countries.

Sitharaman said the export competition is one of the pillars of agriculture negotiations and these negotiations are finely balanced on three pillars and “taking out one pillar will disturb the balance”.

More than 50 members signed the agreement, marking the first major global tariff-cutting deal in 19 years. The G7, without exception, will continue to subsidize their farmers and agricultural systems.

Mr Koya also chaired the meeting of the Pacific WTO Group, which included six Pacific Island countries that were WTO members.

“We’ll should either fix it, agree on a fresh manner of negotiating, or consent to remove it so the WTO targets dispute resolution, on trade policy review as well as the other places which would not have a negotiated component in them”, she said.

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said the Doha Round of negotiations should remain firmly on the WTO’s agenda instead of being diverted from dealing with developing countries’ concerns by “new issues” being pushed by advanced countries led by the US.

“The decisions taken on Financing for Development, the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, and most recently, COP21, give us hope that the world community can collectively find solutions to pressing global issues”. However, the agreement was never expanded, despite substantial technological advances. It is important, therefore, that the WTO members move to ratify the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), concluded at last year’s Ministerial in Bali two years ago. “Positions are not only diverge, they are often completely opposite”, Ulyukayev said.

What is the most contentious issue? But now the efforts are to cherry pick issues from within the Export Competition pillar and further to dilute the provisions to suit a few members, she regretted.At this late hour new definitions and language are being proposed. On phasing out export subsidies, the draft has given a greater leeway to developed countries for eliminating these by 2020 as against the EU’s earlier proposal of 2018.