<\/p>\n
Trade ministers from around the world gathered in Abu Dhabi on Monday for a World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting that aims to set new global commerce rules, but its ambitious chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and delegates sought to curb expectations.<\/p>\n
The almost 30-year-old global watchdog, whose rules underpin 75 per cent of global commerce, tries to strike deals by consensus, but such efforts are becoming more difficult amid signs that the global economy is fragmenting into separate blocs.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s not pretend that any of this will be easy,\u201d Okonjo-Iweala said in her opening speech, describing the atmosphere as \u201ctougher\u201d than the WTO\u2019s last 2022 meeting, citing wars, tensions and elections and signs that trade growth will undershoot the organisation\u2019s own estimate.<\/p>\n
She called on ministers to \u201croll up their sleeves\u201d and complete negotiations, but seemed to rule out any deal in Abu Dhabi on reforming the body\u2019s mothballed appeals court.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not there yet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Thani Al Zeyoudi, conference chair and UAE\u2019s foreign trade minister said in an opening address: \u201cThe multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core is at a critical juncture; it is confronting many challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe WTO remains a powerful force in countering the current unilateralism, protectionism, and discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some delegates privately voiced concerns that India\u2019s trade minister, seen as the main holdout on some key issues including agriculture, was absent on Monday although New Delhi said he would be in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Negotiators say they remain hopeful for an agreement that could buoy global fish stocks and protect fishermen by banning government subsidies.<\/p>\n
Other outcomes from the four-day meeting that are either definite or achievable are the accession of two new members \u2014 Comoros and East Timor \u2014 and a deal among around 120 countries to remove development-hampering investment barriers.<\/p>\n
Tougher areas are extending a 25-year moratorium on applying tariffs on digital trade, which South Africa and India oppose, and an agreement on agriculture trade rules that has eluded negotiators for decades.<\/p>\n
Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal repeated on Monday New Delhi\u2019s drive for a controversial stand-alone permanent waiver to WTO rules that currently restrict domestic agriculture subsidies on food items like rice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this week is really about trying to consolidate progress from two years ago and build on where possible, but I don\u2019t think there\u2019s going to be major new breakthroughs in new areas,\u201d said Simon Conveney, Ireland\u2019s Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, referring to the WTO\u2019s 2022 meeting in Geneva.<\/p>\n
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the meeting was a chance to \u201cchart a future path together\u201d and that success should not be measured by the number of deals.<\/p>\n
One factor that could help is the determination of Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister, whose insistence on all-night meetings helped deliver a package of deals in Geneva in 2022. She has already asked ministers to plan for the four-day talks to run overtime.<\/p>\n
The European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said that uncertainty and multiple crises were impacting the rules-based global order.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis tense geopolitical environment makes multilateral organizations like the WTO much more, not less, important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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