The 13th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), a major international trade negotiations event, will take place from 26 to 29 February in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The event will bring together ministers and delegations from around the world to update WTO trade policy agreements and review the functions of the multilateral trading system, as well as to set the agenda for the future work of the WTO. This Ministerial Conference will be chaired by the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi.
The Ministerial Conference, which usually meets every two years, is the highest-level decision-making body of the WTO and is provided for by the “Agreement Establishing the WTO”.
Since the World Trade Organization was created in 1995, 12 conferences have been held. The latest was held in Geneva, Switzerland, with delegations producing the “Geneva Package”, containing a series of unprecedented decisions on fisheries subsidies, the WTO’s emergency response, including the waiver of certain compulsory licensing requirements for COVID-19 vaccines, food safety and agriculture, as well as WTO reform.
What to look out for? Some of the priority issues include the following, according to information from the New UAE website dedicated to CM13 in Abu Dhabi as part of its role as host country and chairman. Specifically:
- Fishing subsidies: Building on the historic MC12 agreements seeking to ban harmful fisheries subsidies and reduce the depletion of global fish stocks.
- Agriculture: reform agricultural trade and domestic policies to enable fairer competition, reduce market distortions and food insecurity in the most vulnerable nations around the world.
- Dispute settlement: reform of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism to ensure a fair and transparent resolution of trade disputes between WTO members.
- MC12 TRIPS Decision: Expand COVID-19 intellectual property to help diversify vaccine production capacity especially in developing nations.
- WTO reform: to enhance the capacity of the World Trade Organization to respond more effectively to the challenges facing the multilateral trading system.
- Moratorium on electronic commerce: extension of the moratorium on the imposition of customs duties on electronic transmissions.
Why is CM13 important? Essentially, because MC13 offers an opportunity to set the course for the WTO's role in facilitating fair, inclusive and resilient global trade, as nations struggle to emerge from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and seek collective solutions for sustainable development.
In this regard, WTO Director-General Okonjo-Iweala urged members on Wednesday (14.02.2024) to submit reports and draft texts. The deadline: this Friday.
The aim is to give ministers sufficient time to review the documents and reach a comprehensive agreement. Significant progress has been made on the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement, laying the groundwork for intensive negotiations in Abu Dhabi.
“They know it’s always very difficult and it seems like it’s not going to work,” Director-General Okonjo-Iweala said of CM13. “But we never say never. We’re going to get it done.”WTO News) (Publication “WTO Ministerial Conferences: Key Outcomes”)
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