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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.

Today in Abu Dhabi at the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference (MC13) fisherfolk representatives have called on the global trading body to not trade away supports for small-scale fishers.

Ministers are negotiating for prohibitions on subsidies that contribute to overfishing and overcapacity based on the Sustainable Development Goal 14.6 but they are being contested as not addressing the main culprits of overfishing.

Civil Society groups and fisherfolk representatives have traveled to Abu Dhabi to raise their concerns directly to Ministers.

Equity is listed as a "guiding principle and approach" in the current proposed negotiating text for a new pandemic instrument.

"Equity is at the centre of pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, both at the national level within States, among and within countries or regions, and at the international level between States…” as per Article 3 of the negotiating text that elaborates on the principle of equity.

Similarly, EB decision 150(3), which spells out the scope of the amendment of the International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR) also mandates to address the issue of equity. It states: “Such amendments should be limited in scope and address specific and identified issues, challenges – including equity, technological or other developments – or gaps that could not effectively be addressed otherwise but are critical to supporting effective implementation and compliance of the International Health Regulations (2005)”.

The WTO Secretariat and sponsors of the Reference Paper on Services Domestic Regulation will attempt to spin on the announcement that India and South Africa have withdrawn their objections to its adoption through schedules to the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as an outcome of this MC13.

This is not an outcome of the ministerial. This issue was addressed in Geneva. It is still being addressed in the correct forum mandated to address this issue, the Working Party on Domestic Regulation.

There are several legal and procedural issues that remain outstanding and still need to be addressed, including how to ensure that procedural rules that relate to amending schedules of commitments do not get abused to circumvent the rules of amendment under the Marrkesh Agreement.

Civil Society call on the Members, as the next step, to discuss long-standing concerns with this reference paper in that proper forum.

The World Trade Organization’s 13th ministerial conference (MC13) starting in Abu Dhabi on 26 February seems like a proverbial clash of “Goliath vs David” over the proposed termination of the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions, and the proposed controversial plurilateral agreement on Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD), said people familiar with the development.

The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is extremely concerned about a recent announcement that the global cholera vaccine stockpile has been exhausted. As a high number of countries are reporting outbreaks, more manufacturers—existing and new—must urgently help boost the global supply, said MSF.

• 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

Tonight, a sub-group of WTO Members will celebrate the conclusion of a break-away agreement on investment facilitation and try to secure its adoption as a plurilateral agreement at this week’s 13th ministerial conference.  That can only be done by consensus.

The convenors – South Korea and Chile, backed by China – have announced that plan, in the face of sustained objections from India and South Africa that these negotiations have no legitimacy.

WTO Members have explicitly rejected attempts to get an investment agreement ever since 1996. A decision in 2004 said no discussion of investment negotiations in the WTO until the Doha round is over. It is not. In the 2015 Nairobi Ministerial Conference, WTO Members agreed that any such new issues will only be addressed if agreed by all Members.

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.