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WTO to implement key trade pact
NOVEMBER 28, 2014 11:31AM
The 160 members of the World Trade Organisation have agreed to implement a landmark global trade agreement reached in Bali last December.
The deal to implement the first global trade reform pact in the WTO's 19-year history was finally reached on Thursday after negotiations were delayed for 24 hours.
"We've made it!" WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo had said in a speech to member states, according to a trade diplomat in the room.
"We have put ourselves back in the game," he was quoted as saying.
"We've seen a renewed commitment to the multilateral system."
The member states had adopted two texts presented on Monday: the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), aimed at streamlining global customs procedures, and one on the management of food stockpiles.
These two texts were agreed upon late last year in Bali, but had been stalled since July, when India refused to endorse the pact unless its food stockpiles were exempted from possible punitive measures.
India and its supporters in the developing world have argued that food stockpiling is essential to ensure poor farmers and consumers survive in the cutthroat world of business.
But stockpiling and subsidies for the poor are considered trade-distorting under existing WTO rules.
India and the United States finally said earlier this month that they had resolved the row, and the WTO member states had been expected to seal the deal.
The final agreement to put the Trade Facilitation Agreement into action was met with applause.
"Once in force, it will help developing countries better integrate into the global economy, intensify regional integration and lift millions out of poverty," EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said in a statement.
US trade representative Michael Froman also hailed the deal, which he described as "a critical step forward by breaking the impasse that has prevailed since July."
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NOVEMBER 28, 2014 11:31AM
The 160 members of the World Trade Organisation have agreed to implement a landmark global trade agreement reached in Bali last December.
The deal to implement the first global trade reform pact in the WTO's 19-year history was finally reached on Thursday after negotiations were delayed for 24 hours.
"We've made it!" WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo had said in a speech to member states, according to a trade diplomat in the room.
"We have put ourselves back in the game," he was quoted as saying.
"We've seen a renewed commitment to the multilateral system."
The member states had adopted two texts presented on Monday: the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), aimed at streamlining global customs procedures, and one on the management of food stockpiles.
These two texts were agreed upon late last year in Bali, but had been stalled since July, when India refused to endorse the pact unless its food stockpiles were exempted from possible punitive measures.
India and its supporters in the developing world have argued that food stockpiling is essential to ensure poor farmers and consumers survive in the cutthroat world of business.
But stockpiling and subsidies for the poor are considered trade-distorting under existing WTO rules.
India and the United States finally said earlier this month that they had resolved the row, and the WTO member states had been expected to seal the deal.
The final agreement to put the Trade Facilitation Agreement into action was met with applause.
"Once in force, it will help developing countries better integrate into the global economy, intensify regional integration and lift millions out of poverty," EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said in a statement.
US trade representative Michael Froman also hailed the deal, which he described as "a critical step forward by breaking the impasse that has prevailed since July."
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
