12th WTO Ministerial Conference.

 The outcome of recently held 12th Ministerial Conference of World Trade Organisation  in Geneva is worth discussing. Unlike the World Bank or IMF WTO does not delegate power to Board of Directors or Organisational Chief. Instead all decisions of the WTO  are taken collectively through consensus. Ministerial Conference is the highest policy making body of WTO which normally meets once in every two years and take decisions on all matters related to multilateral trade issues and agreements. Representatives of 164 countries who took part in the meeting could make some breakthrough in matters relating to Covid19  vaccines, fishing, food security and e-commerce. 

12th Ministerial Conference decided to permit developing  countries with the capacity to manufacture and export Covid19 vaccines without patent holders consent.But the flexibilities comes with lots of conditions. The resolution in TRIPS  restricts the waiver in patents to Covid19 vaccines only for a period of 5 years , leaving out diagnostics and therapeutics as against Indian and South African original proposal of 2020, which was later  supported by more than 100 countries and institutions like WHO for TRIPS waiver of all covid related vaccines, therapies and diagnostics. Unfortunately the interest of big Pharma companies prevailed in the negotiations relegating the larger interest of humanity to backseat.Studies have shown that covid19 vaccines  have prevented 19.8 million deaths and 599300 more deaths could have been averted if WHO's projected vaccination targets had been met.

With regard to global food security and humanitarian World Food Programme WFP export prohibition or export restriction were not allowed.As a significant contributor of WFP   India had earlier stated that it had never imposed export restrictions for procurement under the programme. It put forth that a blanket exemption could constrain its work in ensuring food security at home..In such a situation it would have to keep its WFP commitments irrespective of its domestic needs. Negotiators agreed that  member countries would not impose export prohibition or restriction on food stuffs purchased for humanitarian purposes of WFP. However policies of domestic food security of members are allowed. But  negotiators could not reach an agreement on issues like Permissible public stock holding threshold for domestic food security , domestic support to agriculture,and  market access. Countries like India will have to struggle hard in the next Ministerial Conference of WTO to find a solution to issues related to public stock holding and Government to Government sales of food. 

As far as fishing rights are concerned India maintained that it's practice is more sustainable as it protects small fishermen than large vessels as against countries like China, Japan Taiwan which trawl on deep seas and are responsible for depletion of fish stocks. The subsidies these countries give to fishery sector is enormous and remains unchallenged.China,European union, US, South Korea and Japan provide about 60% of total $35 billion global subsidies. Their large industrial fleets catch on different continents thousands of kilometers away from their home. Except China for most of the developing countries fishing is a basic livelihood issue.Accordingly in negotiations countries like India has to clung on the right to support its own fisherfolk due to glaring inequality in this sector.India has managed to carve out an agreement eliminating subsidies to those engaged in illegal unreported and unregulated fishing for the next four years. The only exception for continuing subsidies for overfishing stock when they are deemed essential is to rebuild them to a biologically sustained level. Overfishing refers to exploiting fishes at a pace faster than they could replace themselves  indicating  34% as per FAO criteria.

Issue of imposing customs duties on cross border electronic transmission or e commerce came for WTO negotiations. Broadly electronic transmission consists of online deliveries of items like music,ebooks, films, software and video games, Google, Netflix etc, .Since they are ordered online but not delivered physically duty free market access resulted in heavy loss of revenue particularly to developing countries.While traditionally import duties are imposed to curb import surge of unnecessary  items, here the question of clarity regarding what constitute an  'electronic transmission' also comes in. Unfortunately the Twelfth Ministerial Conference has decided to continue the standing moratorium on e commerce transmissions until subsequent Ministerial Conference or March 31 2024,resulting in potential loss of revenue estimated to be $ 550 billion from 49 digital products according to the commerce Minister.

In  nutshell the outcome of the WTO Ministerial Conference eventhough largely protected the interest of  developed countries limited relief to developing countries is visible in terms of temporary waiver of TRIPS for manufacture and delivery of Covid19 vaccines.By setting limits on harmful fishing and curtailing subsidies on illegal unreported and unregulated fishing for the next four years protection of global fish stock is expected.Indicating emergency response to food security countries agreed to exempt supplies meant for World Food Programme WFP from export restrictions. Even though India tried hard to secure permanent solution to the issue of Public Stock Holding PSH for food security it was not mentioned either. Similarly in spite of the initial resistance from India, South Africa, Srilanka, Pakistan and Indonesia on the moratorium of customs duty on e commerce, it was extended till next Ministerial Conference incurring huge revenue loss to developing countries.