Outcome of WTO’s 12 Ministerial Conference

The 12th Ministerial Meeting (MC12) of World Trade Organization (WTO) members concluded with first major deal in nearly nine years. In 2013, at the Bali Ministerial, members signed WTO’s first trade deal on a peace clause on public stockholding for food security purposes and trade facilitation agreement.

Outcome of 12th Ministerial Meeting of WTO –

• Limited patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccines —
  • • The members agreed on a waiver of certain procedural obligations under the TRIPS Agreement.
    • This will allow for the swift manufacture and export of COVID-19 vaccines without the consent of the patent owner.
    • Partial relief has been provided to countries that are still facing supply challenges. Now these countries can authorise a waiver.
    • At the same time, the agreement maintains a functioning intellectual property framework with incentives for investment, research and transfer of technology.
    • The demand to include diagnostics and therapeutics in the agreement was not agreed upon this time. WTO members will decide on the same after six months.
• An agreement to discipline fisheries subsidy —
  • • The agreement on harmful fisheries subsidies was achieved.
    • It includes a strong prohibition of subsidies contributing to illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing with unprecedented transparency provisions.
    • It also includes an absolute prohibition of subsidies for fishing on the unregulated high seas.
    • Also, there is provision on overfished stocks. It will bring sustainability rules for subsidies regarding most vulnerable stocks in the first phase of the agreement.
    • For this agreement regarding subsidies on overcapacity and overfishing to enter into force, negotiations on UN SDG 14.6 need to be concluded.
• WTO reform —
  • • Ministers committed to undertake a major reform of the WTO looking into all aspects of its activities.
    • The participating leaders expressed their commitment to restore a fully-functioning dispute settlement system no later than 2024.
• Food Security and Agriculture —
  • • In a joint Declaration on Food Security, WTO members committed to avoiding unjustified export restrictions on food.
    • They also agreed to improve transparency on any export restrictions.
    • Moreover, a Decision was taken to completely exempt humanitarian purchases for the World Food Programme from export restrictions.
    • However, internal food security concerns will take precedence and a country will be free to decide according to this priority.
    • On Agriculture, members were not able to overcome their differences on a work programme for agriculture.
• Extended a moratorium on applying duties to electronic transmissions —
  • • The meeting had reached an agreement to extend a moratorium on applying duties to electronic transmissions until the next ministerial meeting.
    • Extension of moratorium was backed by major players like the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
    • They argued that letting it expire would undermine a global recovery already threatened by spiralling prices.
    • The agreement specified that the moratorium would expire in March 2024, should the next conference be postponed.

India’s response –

• India listed several gains from the meet and sought to position itself as a key proponent of many of the moves.
• On Fisheries deal —
  • • The agreement on fisheries subsidies is a compromise deal.
    • It dropped several contentious provisions that were not acceptable to several countries.
    • Many countries, including India, did not want their ability to provide subsidies curtailed in any manner.
    • On the other hand, now, over-fishing by China will face discipline.
• Patent waiver —
  • • India had called for a TRIPS waiver for vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics to fight Covid-19 and future pandemics.
    • In October 2020, India, South Africa, and 63 co-sponsors had made the TRIPS waiver proposal.
    • This proposal was to help middle- and low-income nations get access to Covid-19 vaccines and drugs.
    • However, the discussions reached a deadlock in the TRIPS Council, the body responsible for monitoring the operation of the agreement.
    • Current agreement validates India’s position to some extent. The current deal did not include therapeutics and diagnostics.
• Moratorium on Customs duty on e-commerce transactions —
  • • India was officially opposed to extending the moratorium, citing loss of revenue to developing countries.
    • India agreed to an 18-month extension of the moratorium in exchange of protection of its right to extend subsidies to its fishermen.
    • Contentious clauses on fisheries were removed from the text at the last minute.