The 13th Ministerial Conference (MC) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is scheduled to be held in UAE’s Abu Dhabi from February 26-29, 2024. In the run up to MC-13, a Senior Officials Meet (SOM) was held in Geneva on October 23-24, 2023, with an aim to draft the agenda for a fruitful and positive outcome.

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India's Commerce Ministry said that discussions were also held on "Trade and Industrial Policy" and "Trade and Environmental Sustainability", terming the topics as agenda driven by developed countries.

Major agendas of SOM:

1. Agriculture (including food security)

2. Dispute Settlement Reform

3. Trade and Development

4, Fisheries Subsidies Negotiations

5. E-Commerce Moratorium

1. Agriculture

The necessity of making concrete progress was stressed upon for agricultural negotiations including issues like public stockholding, domestic support, market access and Special Safeguard Mechanism. While senior officers emphasised more engagement in favour of credible food security outcomes at MC-13, India emphasised that a permanent solution to stockholding is a mandated issue from the earlier Ministerial Conferences that should be given topmost priority.

2. Dispute Settlement Reform

Members have reaffirmed the MC-12 commitment of having a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system, accessible to all members by 2024. India wants informal discussions to be brought before the formal Committees, i.e. the General Council.

3. Trade and Development

While the ongoing reform discussions on the G90 proposal were supported, Trade and Environmental Sustainability and Trade and Industrial Policy were pushed by the European Union (EU). Many members stressed upon discussing these issues in the relevant committees first, before bringing them up at the MC-13.

4. Fisheries Subsidies

Two-fold directions for fisheries negotiations were provided by senior officials. The first is the stress on effective disciplines to meaningfully reduce subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing. Next was that special and differential treatment will continue to remain an integral part of negotiations.

5. E-Commerce Moratorium

Many members emphasised on the need to extend the moratorium, while others wanted to lift it. However, India said that this needs to be discussed further before raising it to the level of Ministers.

Also Read:India urges WTO for clear definition of e-commerce trade in goods and services

(Edited by : Sangam Singh)

First Published:Nov 16, 2023 7:04 PM IST