Deadlock over contentious issues prolongs WTO talks

A decade ago, the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) rolled over to whole night on the last day with India virtually stalling negotiations over 'peace clause' in deal for food security, and it repeats.
As such back then, the 9th Ministerial Conference (MC9) in Bali adopted an interim mechanism to safeguard minimum support prices to farmers against WTO caps until a permanent solution is adopted. The conference took place in the Indonesian province of Bali on December 3-7, 2013.
As a result, WTO members agreed not to challenge the consistency of the support provided by any country under public-stockholding programmes or PSH with the Agreement on Agriculture on condition of transparency. Two years later, at the Nairobi Ministerial Conference (MC10), ministers agreed to reach 'permanent solution' to this conundrum.
Ten years afterwards, a similar scene emerges in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), at the MC13 that was scheduled to conclude Thursday. This time around, it is India again, along with some developing nations, apparently takes a stand on the permanent solution regarding PSH that appears as a big barrier to reaching a compromise position in the conference. From the outset, India has said it won't negotiate other issues unless the sticking-point over PSH is resolved rightly.
Nevertheless, big differences over fisheries subsidies, e-commerce, and reform in the WTO dispute settlement still stagger on, compelling negotiators to stretch out the talks until midnight. The formal closing session is also deferred by four hours from the scheduled 8:00pm until the filing of the report at 6:00 pm in Abu Dhabi, with the possibility of the parleys prolonging into an unscheduled extra day on Friday.
Indication was also rife that ministerial conference could conclude without a final joint statement, or with a modest version with a chair's declaration on some unresolved issues.
India and a few other developing countries were at loggerheads with the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) as both sides took uncompromising stance at the battle of wits over global trade regime.
The developing few argued that a permanent solution must cover all the farm products of developing and Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
India is strongly pushing for a permanent solution to safeguard minimum support prices (MSP) to farmers and ensure domestic subsidies for procurement and stockpiling of food.
Indian commerce minister Piyush Goyal, in his written statement Monday, argued that the development agenda would remain incomplete without a permanent solution on Public Stockholding (PSH) for food-security purposes.
"This has been and continues to be a long-pending issue since the last few decades, and despite having a clear mandate agreed by us in the past MCs, finding a permanent solution on PSH remains an unaccomplished agenda on which we have to deliver in MC13," he added.
"As India has made the PSH and e-commerce moratorium non-negotiable, the United States and the European Union also take tough stance, creating a deadlock in the whole negotiation," says Prof Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
"The US and EU are not in favour of the permanent solution the way India has been demanding. Instead, these countries arguing that it should be part of a comprehensive negotiation on agriculture," he adds.
Developed countries argued that India's minimum-support price (MSP) scheme for key agricultural products and export restrictions on commodities such as rice are actually subsidies and tools that are distorting the trade.
Prof Mustafiz, who is attending the conference as a representative of the civil society, is of the view that such deadlock may ultimately lead to minimum outcome at the conference.
India is also opposing continuity of e-commerce moratorium and demands that there should be no bar to imposing customs duties on electronic transmission. Developed countries are, however, in favour of continuation of the moratorium at least up to the next ministerial conference.
"E-commerce is growing rapidly and the moratorium helps the growth," said Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, while talking to a group of journalists on Thursday. "European Union as well as many developing countries are in favour of extending the moratorium."
"There is always a tendency in Western media and WTO officials to 'name and shame' India or some other developing countries to cover up the various deficiencies and asymmetric measures," he alleged.
"Instead of analysing the things properly, viewing these through the American perspective will not help to solve the real problems," added Ravi, who is now in Abu Dhabi.
The four-day MC13 of the WTO started Monday with trade ministers and senior officials of 164 members attending. An eight-member Bangladesh delegation headed by Ahasanul Islam Titu, State Minister for Commerce, has participated in the trade meet.
The WTO MC13 was extended to Friday.

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[The writer is in Abu Dhabi at the invitation of the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), Geneva.]