Negotiations at WTO global talks reach final day

Negotiations at the World Trade Organisation aimed at clinching deals on food security, fishing and vaccines entered their final hours on Thursday after all-night talks.

Ministers from more than 100 countries are meeting at the global trade watchdog’s headquarters in Geneva this week, for the first time in more than four years, to thrash out new trade rules — a feat many doubt in an era of high geopolitical tensions.

The body’s 164 members must all agree for new global trade rules to be passed, meaning that one member can block deals.

In the June 12-15 meeting, now prolonged until Thursday afternoon, that member has been India. New Delhi has stuck to long-held demands to maintain subsidies for fisheries and agriculture and pushed for extra carve-outs, trade sources say.

Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s statements confirmed those demands.

“India is strongly representing its perspective at the WTO to protect the future of every Indian and that of the marginalised,” he said on Twitter.

However, some delegates were more upbeat on Thursday, including on a package of deals with trade offs possible across the topics. EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said they were “getting closer” in a tweet. WTO deputy director-general Anabel Gonzalez said she was “hopeful”.

One of the possible outcomes of the talks is a pared-back version of a deal designed to curb fishing subsidies that cause over-fishing, a document seen by Reuters showed. Another is a waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines and pledges to ease the food security crisis although tussles over the wording continued, sources said.

WTO officials have maintained throughout the meetings that deals can be reached, saying that talks often look hopeless until a final bargain comes together.

Reuters/Hauwa Abu