Prospects for World Trade Organization deals aimed at resolving some of the global economy’s most pressing but politically thorny issues hung in the balance as the trade body extended by a day its ministerial conference in Geneva.
Trade ministers on Wednesday were hoping to clinch deals aimed at widening vaccine distribution, boosting food security, reducing fishing subsidies and extending a moratorium on digital-commerce tariffs. So talks will go into Thursday to try to loosen the key sticking points. India, for instance, was refusing to bend on its defense of its domestic fishing industry.
Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal told a meeting of delegates that it wants exceptions on a 20-year negotiation to curb harmful government fishery subsidies, according to a statement on his ministry’s website. He also insisted members water down the WTO’s subsidy rules for government-backed food-purchasing programs aimed at feeding poor citizens, according to a separate statement.
“The Indian delegation has raised everybody’s eyebrows,” Mexican Undersecretary of Foreign Trade Luz Maria de la Mora said in an interview. “You cannot come to a negotiating forum, particularly at this stage, making demands that they brand as non-negotiable.”
The tough stance by one of the world’s largest developing economies is just one example of the difficulty the WTO faces reaching a package of small but symbolically important deals. Failure to do so may cement the view that the WTO is no longer a viable forum to address the shortcomings of international commerce.