Brief on Outcomes of the Twelfth Ministerial Conference of the WTO
The Twelfth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (“MC-12”) was held in Geneva, during 12-17 June, 2022. The Conference was co-hosted by Kazakhstan and chaired by Mr. Timur Suleimenov, Deputy Chief of Staff of Kazakhstan’s President.
MC-12 proved to be a successful Ministerial Conference as it resulted in outcomes in different areas after 7 years. India participated constructively in the negotiations in all areas which were part of agenda i.e. agriculture, fisheries, WTO response to pandemic, TRIPS, E-Commerce and WTO reform.
The outcome package included decisions including on fisheries subsidies, the WTO response to the pandemic, food insecurity, e-commerce.
As part of the Ministerial Decision on the Work Programmeon electronic commerce, WTO members agreed to maintain their current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions and to intensify discussions among members on this topic. The moratorium will remain in effect until MC13 due to be held by the end of 2023 or until 31 March 2024 should MC13 be delayed beyond that date.
In response to the ongoing impact of COVID-19, members adopted a Ministerial Declarationon the WTO response to the current and future pandemics which provides a template aimed at faster and globally coordinated response for future Pandemics without altering the existing rights and obligations of WTO Members. This includes a waiver of certain requirements under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) concerning the use of compulsory licences to produce COVID-19 vaccines.
In parallel, a Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreementprovides a platform for members to work together to diversify vaccine production capacity. As per the Decision, Members will have greater scope to take direct action over the next five years to override the exclusive effect of patents through a targeted waiver that addresses specific problems identified during the pandemic, especially facilitating and streamlining vaccine exports.
After negotiations for 21 years, WTO members agreed on an Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies which sets new global rules to curb harmful subsidies and protect global fish stocks in a manner that also recognizes the needs of fishers in developing and least-developed countries (LDCs). The agreement prohibits support for Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. It bans support for fishing in overfished stocks. The agreement also seeks to curb subsidies for overcapacity and overfishing by ending subsidies for fishing on the unregulated high seas.
The MC12 outcome package also comprises of a Ministerial Declaration on the emergency response to food insecurity and a Ministerial Decision on exempting World Food Programme (WFP) humanitarian food purchases from export prohibitions or restrictions.
The Outcome Document of MC12 is an all-encompassing document for the Ministerial and contains, in Part I, political declaration followed by decisions and declarations adopted by Ministers in Part II.The document, inter alia, recognizes women’s economic empowerment and the contribution of MSMEs to inclusive and sustainable economic growth. The outcome document also notes the commitment of members to conduct discussions to have a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system by 2024.
Apart from this, Ministers also adopted a Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Declaration on responding to challenges that may significantly impact international trade in food, animals and plants.
Further, Ministers also adopted a decision reaffirming the commitment of members to the WTO’s Work Programme on Small Economies, which seeks to address the particular challenges facing these economies. Another decision extends the moratorium on so-called TRIPS “non-violation and situation” complaints, which deals with situations where a government may complain it has been deprived of an expected benefit because of another government’s action, even if no agreement has been violated.
*****