Hard bargains among World Trade Organization (WTO) members were finally capped with a package deal on patent waiver allowing cheap vaccine production, food security, fostering electronic commerce and fisheries subsidy cuts.
However, the least-developed countries couldn't get their main gaol through as the forum adopted Friday the Geneva package concluding the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) of the WTO aiming to facilitate global trade in the time of Covid-19 recovery and disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.
The package appears 'largely disappointing outcome' for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) including Bangladesh.
A hectic move by the world's poor-country club to get the members' trade benefits extended for few more years after graduation from the UN-defined status of LDC did not get necessary backing in the multilateral trade-negotiation forum as some developed and advanced developing countries didn't agree on the demand.
The WTO-member countries, however, came into a consensus that LDCs would need "some sort of support after graduation", said Debabrata Chakraborty, commercial counselor in the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh in Geneva.
Thus, the outcome document of the ministerial meet acknowledged the concerns and limitations of the LDCs in global trade without any binding commitment to providing some trade benefits for the time being in post-gradation era.
"..in this difficult context, we note with satisfaction the progress achieved by LDC members who have met or who are about to meet the graduation criteria set by the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP) and acknowledge the particular challenges that graduation presents, including the loss of trade-related international support measures, as they leave the LDC category," says the WTO declaration.
"We recognise the role that certain measures in the WTO can play in facilitating smooth and sustainable transition for these Members after graduation from the LDC Category," the declaration adds.
The global trade body rules that an eligible member may apply the provisions of this decision until 5 years from the date of this decision. The General Council may extend such a period taking into consideration "the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic".
To reach the Geneva package, the four-day MC12 was extended by a day and the trade ministers negotiated through the night at the WTO headquarters. The meeting of the topmost body of the WTO was initially scheduled to end Wednesday.
The package includes the ministerial declarations on the WTO response to the Covid-19 pandemic and preparedness for future pandemics, and the emergency response to food insecurity.
Reaching an agreement on partial waiver of patents for Covid-19 vaccines to allow developing countries to produce vaccines for their own use to fight the pandemic is now considered the biggest achievement of the conference.
"Consensus on patent waiver for vaccine production, food-security issues, WTO response to pandemic and WTO reform initiatives in the general council body have been reflected in the declaration," said Md Hafizur Rahman, Director-General of the WTO cell at the Bangladesh commerce ministry.
He also said that reform initiatives would be participatory and transparent in the process.
"Decision on phasing out e-commerce moratorium is a breakthrough as customs duty could be imposed after March 2024 on it," he said while talking to the FE.
In the meantime, General Council of WTO will prepare a work programme on e-commerce moratorium.
According to a study, Bangladesh loses more than $6.0 billion worth of business in a year because of duty waiver on e-commerce. The latest decision is likely to bring benefit for Bangladesh though businesses argue that continuation of the waiver is vital to allowing free flow of data worldwide.
Hafiz also said the declaration on fisheries subsidy curtailed the overcapacity and overfishing - two major issues in the trade.
"Only focusing on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing weakened the fisheries subsidies declaration but LDC will enjoy some flexibility on dispute- settlement issues under the agreement," he added.
The agreement on fisheries would be helpful to Bangladesh, like other developing countries, as there is a peace clause for them, added Chakrabarty.
Accord on curbing the fisheries subsidies is the second multilateral agreement in the WTO's 27-year history. The first one is Trade Facilitation Agreement adopted in Bali in 2013 designed to cut red tape.
Round-the-clock negotiations among delegations produced the "Geneva Package", which contains a series of unprecedented decisions on fisheries subsidies, WTO response to emergencies, including a patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccines, food safety and agriculture, and WTO reform, said WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in her closing statement Friday.
"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," the DG told the trade ministers from across the globe.
They, she said, show the world that WTO members can come together, across geopolitical fault lines, to address problems of the global commons, and to reinforce and reinvigorate this institution. "They give us cause to hope that strategic competition will be able to exist alongside growing strategic cooperation."
Tipu Munshi, the commerce minister of Bangladesh, led the country's delegation in Geneva. More than 100 trade ministers and senior officials attended the conference which was co-hosted by Kazakhstan.
Timur Suleimenov, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Kazakh President, who chaired the conference, thanked the WTO DG for never giving up. "Her determination, her leadership, her perseverance made all the difference. Dr Ngozi, the WTO owes you a great debt," he said in his closing remarks.
The previous meeting of the topmost decision-making body of the multilateral trade rule-making organisation took place four and a half years back in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires in December 2017. The MC11 had ended without any declaration and concrete decision.
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