Trade negotiations – Trade β Blog

WTO farm talks seek fresh thinking without losing everything

After the disaster at the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference, members’ views differ on how to restart, negotiate and agree by 2026

PREVIOUS STORIES
Seven talking points after the WTO’s 2024 Ministerial Conference
Chair’s draft pushes WTO farm talks deadlines back to next conference
‘Mission impossible’ and ‘mission essential’ collide in WTO farm talks
See also all stories on this topic (tagged “agriculture negotiations”)

Posted by Peter Ungphakorn
APRIL 21, 2024 | UPDATED APRIL 21, 2024

Negotiators in the World Trade Organization’s farm talks broadly agree that a new approach is needed to revive the talks after they failed completely at the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference, but they differ on whether to tackle the entire subject or focus on priority areas.

On the table in the April 16, 2024 meeting was a proposal from Brazil for a decision by the General Council in July. This would effectively turn the scrapped draft from Abu Dhabi into a postponed decision, while removing the no longer available option of agreeing on over-the-limit subsidies in food stockpiling (“PSH”) at the Ministerial Conference.

The WTO’s General Council has the power to take decisions on behalf of its Ministerial Conferences.

In a separate process, WTO members also agreed on a non-binding document on food security, including export restrictions, also a binned agricultural text in Abu Dhabi.

Setback for plurilateral approach as investment deal blocked again

The 128 participants will continue efforts to persuade India, South Africa and Türkiye that their deal can become an official WTO plurilateral agreement

By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED MARCH 22, 2024 | UPDATED MARCH 23, 2024

India and South Africa, now joined by Türkiye, continued to block consensus on adding the 128-participant Investment Facilitation Agreement to the World Trade Organization’s rulebook when WTO members met as the General Council today (March 22, 2024).

The on-going resistance is a setback for the large number of countries that had hoped deals among only some of the WTO’s 164 members — known as “plurilateral” — could be a way to allow rule-making to develop among the willing without affecting others who are not ready.

Lack of consensus prevents “plurilateral” agreements from being part of the organisation’s official package of rules. That means WTO committees cannot be set up to oversee implementation and the agreements are not subject to legal proceedings under WTO dispute settlement.

Only three of the 36 non-participants have opposed adding this plurilateral agreement to the WTO’s rules. The US is a non-participant that has previously argued in favour.

Minutes show how domestic regulation deal in services schedules resolved

The January 24, 2024 meeting shows how talks with 54 WTO members led South Africa and India to drop their objections to commitments incorporating the plurilateral services deal

By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED MARCH 6, 2024 | UPDATED MARCH 6, 2024

More details have emerged explaining what happened in talks between some participants in the plurilateral agreement on services domestic regulation and objectors India and South Africa, leading to the objections being dropped.

The story is told in the minutes of the multilateral (WTO-wide) working party handling domestic regulation in services. The minutes are still restricted but will be public in a few months. A leaked copy is here.

They show that South Africa and India had already told WTO members they would drop their objections several weeks before their formal announcements.

Objections dropped on services regulation say nothing about other plurilaterals

Faced with the impossibility of going to arbitration, India and South Africa were forced to drop their objections. They did so for countries that had amended their proposed commitments

By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED FEBRUARY 28, 2024 | UPDATED APRIL 6, 2024

Most of the reports coming from the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi speak of the new plurilateral agreement on services regulation entering into force at the conference.

That was the line taken on the WTO website and in the participants’ press conference.

As a result, many media reports also used the term and missed crucial details about what was really going on, including the fact that it only applied to some participants in the deal.

Describing this as a new agreement “entering into force” is not wrong, but it is misleading.

India and South Africa have not dropped all their objections — a point that is missed in most of the reporting

What has happened is that participants in the new agreement on domestic regulation in services have attached the text of the agreement to their individual commitments (called “schedules”) in services, rather than to the general WTO rule-book.

This has avoided the need for WTO-wide consensus on adding to the rule-book an agreement among only part of the WTO’s membership, in the face of opposition from India and South Africa.

Even with this alternative route, India and South Africa still resisted. They raised objections about the proposed new schedules of commitments.

But here the rules are different. India and South Africa could not object forever. So they eventually dropped their objections on some of the schedules, which could then be certified, justifying the description of “entering into force”.

Plurilateral services commitments from 54 members certified, leaving 16 to go

India has joined South Africa in dropping its objections to some of the commitments incorporating the new plurilateral deal on domestic services regulation

(Original headline: “Plurilateral services commitments from 53 member certified, leaving 17 to go”.)

UPDATES April 5, 2024. The WTO Secretariat announced on April 4 that El Salvador’s revised services schedule had been certified because “the Secretariat has received no objections within 45 days as stipulated in the procedures”. The proposal was circulated on February 19, 2024.

In other words, India and South Africa never objected to El Salvador’s February 19 proposal, which seems to have gone straight to pasting in the domestic regulation disciplines, instead of linking to the reference paper. The following day, El Salvador circulated the supplement to its services schedule.

That meant 54 members’ schedules involving the plurilateral agreement had been certified, leaving 16 members’ schedules still uncertified (including the UK’s, facing post-Brexit objections from Russia). One more participant — Timor Leste — is not counted because it is still in the final stages of completing WTO membership.

March 28, 2024. South Africa dropped its objections to four more proposed revised schedules of commitments in services after they were corrected. We can assume that they continue the practice of pasting the new disciplines directly into the documents rather than simply link to the reference paper.

The four are from Albania, Canada, Georgia and South Korea, bringing the total of corrected documents so far to 31, from 58 members. (Chile’s was corrected twice; the UK’s is still uncertified because of post-Brexit Russian objections.)

India had not yet followed suit, so the four new corrected documents remain uncertified, and the certified total is unchanged

By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED FEBRUARY 27, 2024 | UPDATED APRIL 15, 2024

At the last-minute India has dropped its objections, allowing a plurilateral agreement on streamlining domestic services regulations to be fully legal in 53 World Trade Organization members.

India’s announcement, circulated on the first day of the WTO’s Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi, follows South Africa’s almost two weeks ago

In a paper circulated on February 16, South Africa said it no longer objected to the 27 new commitments from 54 WTO members on services. India withdrew its objections on the same 27 revised lists (or “schedules”) of commitments in services.

This has allowed 26 revised schedules from 53 WTO members to be officially certified. One — from the UK — faces additional objections related to its departure from the EU (Brexit), but Britain said it would continue to apply the new disciplines anyway.

The schedules of another 17 participants in the domestic services regulation agreement have not been certified, apparently because they have not been amended to the satisfaction of India and South Africa.

Simply put: ‘PSH’, the biggest controversy in the WTO agriculture talks

The misleadingly-named “public stockholding” (“PSH”) could be more correctly called “(over-the-limit) Price support in food Stock-Holding”

SEE ALSO

In depth:
Behind the rhetoric: ‘Public stockholding for food security’ in the WTO
WTO fact sheet:
The Bali decision on stockholding for food security in developing countries
All stories on this topic (tagged “food stockholding”)

By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED FEBRUARY 25, 2024 | UPDATED APRIL 22, 2024

It almost wrecked the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference in Bali in 2013. It delayed by a year the final agreement on an entirely separate topic: trade facilitation. It caused agriculture to be dropped completely from the 2022 Ministerial Conference in Geneva, and for the second time in a row, at the 2024 Abu Dhabi conference.

The misleadingly-named “public stockholding” (“PSH”) is currently the most controversial subject in the WTO’s agricultural negotiations.

Those initial letters would more appropriately stand for “(over-the-limit) Price support in food Stock-Holding”.

CONTINUE READING or use these links to JUMP DOWN THE PAGE:

What’s it about? | What are the rules? | What else is demanded? | Who has breached its subsidy limit? | So how’s it going? | In a nutshell

TABLES AND DATA: Which countries have notified eligible programmes? | India’s notified breaches of domestic support limits for rice | Rice, shares of world exports

What’s it about?

It’s probably best to start with what it’s not about.

It’s not about food stockholding. There are no WTO rules against that.

Fisheries subsidies draft published for WTO Ministerial Conference

But with many issues unresolved, the chair says officials will continue to work on it before and during the Abu Dhabi conference

UPDATE: On April 12, 2024, chair Einar Gunnarsson circulated a copy of an “advance draft” as emailed to ministers in the early hours of March 1, 2024, close to the end of the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference. His accompanying explanation includes a detailed account of what happened at the conference.

Paragraphs 56 to 59 of the chair’s explanation describe further convergence after that draft was circulated, although some issues remained unsettled. It was the further revisions that Fiji and Vanuatu wanted discussed in the final plenary sessions at the conference, sparking a furious outburst of objections from India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. As Gunnarsson says, work will continue.

By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED FEBRUARY 19, 2024 | UPDATED APRIL 13, 2024

The fisheries subsidies draft for the World Trade Organization’s February 26–29, 2024 Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi was published on February 16 along with a detailed explanation by the chair, Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland.

“All members are very aware that next week, the eyes of the world will be on us,” Gunnarsson told journalists on February 19. (His full statement is here.)

“I believe that we have every possibility to deliver a meaningful outcome and bring these very long-running fisheries subsidies negotiations to a close at last. I will do everything in my power to help that chance become a reality.”

Achieving that is not guaranteed, and work continues in the final days before the conference to resolve at least some of the remaining differences.

(The draft and the explanation are presented side by side here.)

South Africa drops objections to 27 plurilateral services commitments

South Africa’s announcement covers commitments from 54 of the 71 participants in the plurilateral agreement on services domestic regulation

SEE UPDATE
Plurilateral services commitments from 53 members certified, 17 to go
AND
Experts: India, S.Africa unlikely to succeed in blocking WTO services deal
Technical note: types of plurilateral deals and adding them to WTO rules
Explainer: The 18 WTO plurilaterals and ‘joint-statement initiatives’
Technical note: Participation in WTO plurilateral talks

By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED FEBRUARY 17, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 22, 2024

Ten days before the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference South Africa has dropped its objections to 54 WTO members implementing an agreement to streamline domestic regulation in services, leaving only India dissenting on these cases.

In a paper circulated on February 16, South Africa says it no longer objects to the 27 new commitments on services (in documents called “schedules”).

They are from 54 WTO members: Argentina, Bahrain, Chile, China, Costa Rica, the EU (including for its 27 member states), Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan , Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Mauritius, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the UK and the US.

These new commitments contain new rules on domestic regulations in services. They are the result of “plurilateral” negotiations — meaning they were talks among only part of the WTO membership — concluded in December 2021.

Altogether 71 WTO members are participants in the deal but so far only 27 schedules from 54 members have been corrected to South Africa’s satisfaction.

What the fisheries subsidies talks’ chair reported to WTO ambassadors

Iceland ambassador Einar Gunnarsson’s report to the final General Council meeting before the 2024 Ministerial Conference, after a busy ‘Fish Month’

SEE ALSO
Updates on the fisheries subsidies talks. And all stories tagged “fisheries subsidies”

By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED FEBRUARY 16, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Iceland’s ambassador Einar Gunnarsson, who chairs the World Trade Organization’s fisheries subsidies negotiations is expected to circulate on Monday (February 19, 2024) a new draft on curbing subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing.

The draft will be the final version for the February 26–29 Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi (“MC13”). At the previous conference in Geneva, June 2022, WTO ministers set the Abu Dhabi conference as the deadline for concluding the negotiations.

The draft is nicknamed “Fish 2” because it covers provisions that could not be agreed and were therefore dropped from the 2022 Fisheries Subsidies Agreement (“Fish 1”).

The new draft will draw on a “Fish Month” of negotiations that began in mid-January. This is Gunnarsson’s report to WTO ambassadors on the talks and on his intentions for the final draft, delivered on February 14, at the final General Council meeting before the Ministerial Conference.

Chair’s draft pushes WTO farm talks deadlines back to next conference

Negotiators are meeting almost daily as they work through the Türkiye ambassador’s draft for this month’s Ministerial Conference

PREVIOUS STORY
‘Mission impossible’ and ‘mission essential’ collide in WTO farm talks

SEE ALSO
WTO ministers’ meeting — no interaction, no movement, just speeches
Texts: state of play in WTO farm talks and the crisis-meeting invitation
and all stories on this topic (tagged “food stockholding”)

UPDATE: The draft prepared for the February 26–29, 2024 Ministerial Conference was circulated on February 16. It still pushed the deadlines back to the next conference, but with options throughout: members “shall” agree by then or they “agree to work towards” the target.

The deadlock remained over whether price support in food security stockpiling (PSH) should be a stand-alone decision at this conference or resolved with all the other topics by the next one.

See the full update below

Posted by Peter Ungphakorn
FEBRUARY 5, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 18, 2024

World Trade Organization agriculture negotiators are spending the first two weeks of February scrutinising a draft text for the WTO’s upcoming Ministerial Conference.

In a meeting on January 30, 2024 they accepted the draft as the document to work on for the February 26–29 conference in Abu Dhabi — the WTO’s 13th Ministerial Conference, called “MC13” by insiders.

It was prepared by the talks’ chair, Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy of Türkiye.

The 5-page draft is detailed, but for most issues it postpones any resolution until the Ministerial Conference after Abu Dhabi — “MC14” — normally within two years.

However, one issue still threatens to sink the whole effort. This is about finding a long-term solution for the present short term fix for over-the-limit subsidies used to buy into food security stocks (explained here).

Members disagree on whether this should be a single-issue decision or part of a package covering the whole of domestic support. (More below.)

A WTO website news story summarises its content in detail.