GENEVA — The World Trade Organization’s ministerial
conference will run over into a fifth day Thursday in the hope of striking
thus-far elusive deals on fishing subsidies, food security and combating COVID-19.
اضافة اعلان
The gathering of trade ministers at the WTO’s
headquarters in Geneva was due to wrap up on Wednesday, with the global trade
body hoping to prove it still has a role to play in tackling big global
challenges.
But WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who has hinged
her leadership on breathing new life into the sclerotic organization, said
landmark deals were within reach if ministers ploughed on.
She said countries “feel that we really can cross
the line on some of these things if we gave it a bit more time”.
The last WTO ministerial conference, in December
2017 in Buenos Aires, was widely considered a flop, closing without a major
agreement.
The global trade body only takes decisions by
consensus among all 164 members.
Okonjo-Iweala, who took office in March 2021, is
keen to make the WTO a relevant player on the international stage.
The former finance and foreign minister of Nigeria
was hoping to pull off a coup by securing a long-sought deal on curbing harmful
fishing subsidies.
Negotiations towards banning subsidies that
encourage overfishing and threaten the sustainability of the planet’s fish
stocks have been going on at the WTO for more than two decades.
Diplomats say a deal is closer now than ever before.
But India threw a spanner in the works late Tuesday,
insisting it would not sign up without a 25-year exemption — far longer than
many are comfortable with.
Besides fisheries, the WTO conference is trying to
strike deals on agriculture, food security, COVID-19 vaccine patents, the WTO’s
response to pandemics, and reform of the organization itself.
Despite the overtime, one diplomatic source close to
the negotiations said it was “not yet clear that there is a deal to be had”.
Some emerging from the negotiating rooms are blaming
Indian intransigence on not just fisheries but on every topic.
‘Saving WTO, not lives’
Ministers are discussing the
possibility of imposing a temporary waiver on COVID-19 vaccine patents.
But serious objections remain from some countries
that host major pharmaceutical companies, like the UK and Switzerland, notably
on the scope of the proposals.
NGOs believe the text does not go nearly far enough.
Civil society activists staged a “die-in” protest in
the WTO’s atrium, accusing the EU, Britain, Switzerland, and the US of
thwarting a meaningful COVID intellectual property waiver.
“The proposal on
the table is intended to save the reputation of the WTO but it will not save a
human life from the pandemic,” demonstration organizer Deborah James told AFP.
Swiss economy minister Guy Parmelin insisted he
remained against a wide-ranging waiver, adding that “patents have not slowed
access to vaccines — quite the opposite”.
As for whether the Swiss were isolated, he said many
other nations were simply “hiding their cards”, with a touch of “hypocrisy in
certain countries”.
A second pandemic-related text being negotiated seeks to
tackle supply constraints faced by certain countries in getting hold of
COVID-fighting tools.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
