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Amidst a tense negotiating climate, the fate of the World Trade Organization’s 13th ministerial conference (MC13), which commences on 26 February in Abu Dhabi, will be decided by three main issues among others, said people familiar with the development.

The three issues that could tilt the outcome at MC13 one way or the other are the permanent solution for public stockholding (PSH) programs for food security, the termination/extension of the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions, and the controversial proposal to integrate the proposed plurilateral agreement on Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) into the WTO rule book.

Trade ministers of more than 40 countries of the Group of 33 (G33), coordinated by Indonesia, on 25 February issued a clarion call for adopting the much-delayed mandated “permanent solution” for public stockholding (PSH) programs for food security at the WTO’s 13th ministerial conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi.

A day before the commencement of MC13 at the Abu Dhabi conference hall, the G33 trade ministers expressed deep concern that “almost  600 million people will be chronically undernourished in 2030, and hunger will increase significantly in Africa by 2030, as recently projected by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.”

• Analysis of e-commerce JSI chairs’ text of 20 February 2024, INF/ECOM/85 Rev. 1  by Jane Kelsey
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• Agriculture and food security in MC13: Going forward or backward?  by Ranja Sengupta
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• Dispute settlement reform: The informal process and the way forward after MC13  by Kinda Mohamadieh
• Commentary on the draft text of the informal discussions on dispute settlement reform

• Risks in trade as a solution for environmental problems by Abhijit Das

Here’s a roundup of the issues at stake at the upcoming ministerial:

Fishing subsidies: The WTO reached a partial agreement at its last ministerial conference in June 2022 to curb subsidies that threaten the future of ocean fish supplies.

This time they are trying for a more comprehensive agreement that would hopefully have a much bigger impact on maintaining one of the world’s most important food stocks.

Of all the issues at stake in Abu Dhabi, officials are most hopeful about getting this negotiation over the line. “If there’s no agreement on fish at MC13, that’d be a tragedy,” one Geneva-based diplomat said.

For Okonjo-Iweala, the negotiation is proof the WTO is still relevant. “260 million people depend on fisheries for their livelihood, and the oceans are being overfished. [The question for ministers in Abu Dhabi is] can we save the oceans, be part of the regenerative blue economy and save jobs?” she told POLITICO in an interview.

rom February 26–29, 2024, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will host the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Governments from 164 countries will be joined by Timor-Leste and Comoros, the first two nations to join the group since 2017.

At stake is a fight between two visions of what role the WTO, as the world’s most powerful rule-making body in the global economy, should play.

Should the institution expand as an even more corporate-influenced body, with rich countries allowed to set agendas, impose negotiation mechanisms in their favor, and leave poorer countries — and multilateralism itself — in the dustbin of history?

Or should members of the institution recognize the constraints that the current rules place on developing economies, including the harm caused to workers, farmers, and the global environment, and increase flexibilities so that these countries can use trade for their development?

Ministerial Declaration

The United States and Paraguay, on behalf of the Cairns Group of farm- exporting countries, seemingly clashed with the European Union, Switzerland, and Japan on 6 February over negotiating the mandate on domestic support and market access in agriculture, which is expected to be agreed upon, barring opposition, at the World Trade Organization’s 13^th ministerial conference (MC13) beginning in Abu Dhabi in three weeks’ time, said people familiar with the discussions.

At a meeting of the agriculture negotiating body on 30 January open to all delegations, the Chair, Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy of Türkiye, introduced a draft negotiating text for members' consideration. Trade officials present welcomed the draft, which they said could serve as a useful basis for the negotiations among WTO members ahead of the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13), from 26 to 29 February.

Chair introduces draft text for agriculture negotiations in run-up to MC13

"With only four weeks to go before the 13th Ministerial Conference, the negotiations are entering their final stretch. It’s time to focus on what could be achievable at MC13, and also pave the way for a more substantial outcome at MC14," the Chair said. WTO ministerial conferences, which are the organisation’s highest decision-making body, are normally held every two years.

The chair of the Doha agriculture negotiations, Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy of Turkiye, is understood to have held a meeting with a dozen trade envoys on 9 January to elicit their views on how to finalize an outcome document for trade ministers to adopt at the World Trade Organization’s 13th ministerial conference (MC13) that begins in Abu Dhabi on 26 February, said people familiar with the development.

Trade envoys from the United States, the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Cameroon, and South Africa apparently attended the meeting.