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It’s a wrap on the WTO conference: The World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi concluded with the 164 WTO members pledging to strengthen global trade by adopting the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Declaration (pdf), after negotiations went into overtime. The declaration includes several measures that aim to propel negotiations forward, without providing breakthroughs on several of the topics that were under discussion during the meeting.
E-COMMERCE TARIFF MORATORIUM EXTENDED-
Digital commerce to remain tariff-free: After five days fraught with disagreements, negotiators agreed to renew the moratorium on e-commerce tariffs for another two years, exempting businesses from customs on digital goods and transactions, such as emails and film downloads, until the next session of the ministerial conference or 31 March 2026, “whichever is earlier,” the WTO said in a statement (pdf). The agreement was reached after India and South Africa acceded to the tariff suspension, Bloomberg reports.
UAE had a hand in the tariff waiver extension: After blocking the tariff waiver for the five days of negotiations on the basis of believing it “favored big tech companies and prevented competitors in developing countries from growing,” Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal dropped New Delhi’s opposition “at the request of” Trade Minister Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Bloomberg explained. India initially stalled the extension to put pressure on negotiators to achieve consensus on subsidies for Indian farmers, the business news information added.
NO LUCK ON FISHERIES + DISPUTE SETTLEMENT –
Overfishing ban hits impasse: Negotiators failed to reach consensus on an agreement to curb overfishing subsidies, with only 71 members formally accepting the agreement, 39 acceptances short of the 110 needed for the agreement to enter into effect, according to the WTO.
REMEMBER- During the last ministerial conference in 2022, member states reached a preliminary agreement to ban subsidies that promote unsustainable fishing, but left critical issues regarding overcapacity and overfishing unresolved, Reuters previously reported.
Fingers point at India: Some negotiators hinted that India was to blame for talks on a draft agreement falling throughas “agreements were within reach, supported by an overwhelming majority of members, but ultimately blocked by a handful of countries — sometimes just one,” said the EU’s Trade Executive VP and Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.
With little progress made on restoring the WTO’s defunct dispute settlement body,members agreed to resume talks to reform the dispute settlement body by the end of 2024, after its stagnation left many trade disputes in a legal limbo since members “can appeal them into a legal void and the WTO’s rules cannot be enforced,” according to Reuters. The dispute body has been stagnant since 2019 due to the Trump administration blocking new judge appointments, leaving bns in unresolved trade disputes.
The conference set the stage to iron out differences: “While I had hoped that we could finish these negotiations in Abu Dhabi, you have prepared the ground for its conclusion at the next Ministerial Conference, if not earlier. The livelihoods of 260 [mn] people who depend directly or indirectly on marine fisheries are at stake,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said, according to state news agency Wam.
UAE launches platform to foster future negotiations: The UAE will launch the Trade for Development platform to provide key trade negotiators from developing and least developed countries with technical assistance to “enhance their capacity and skills to engage in the complex and highly technical process of trade negotiations,” Wam reports. The government will “gift” the platform to eight WTO members: Ethiopia, Mozambique, Antigua and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Comoros, Kyrgyzstan and Barbados.
