Sawt Falasteen - US, India still at odds with majority on WTO reform

Reforming the global trade body, which has spent years tangled up in structural and geopolitical obstacles, will be the focus of discussions at the WTO's ministerial conference, its biennial main gathering, from March 26 to 29 in Cameroon's capital Yaounde.

"A large majority of members support the plan" that is on the table after nine months of discussions, said Norway's ambassador to the WTO Petter Olberg, who is facilitating the reform talks.

"We're getting closer to something which ministers can endorse" in Yaounde, he told reporters at the WTO's headquarters in Geneva.

All countries want WTO reform, but "there is some disagreement; there are some divergences" on the solutions, he added, without going into details.

"It's a compromise. So nobody is super happy. Some want more ambition; some want less ambition. Some want more detail; some want less detail."

The goal in Yaounde is not to finalise the reforms, but to establish a programme of work, with fixed objectives and deadlines.

The draft reform plan has not yet been published, but has three main components, said Olberg.

First is decision-making, including the possibility of plurilateral negotiations, in which decisions are taken by some but not all members, rather than by consensus.

Second are the benefits granted to developing countries; and finally, issues of transparency and compliance with trade measures.

- 'Getting there' -

"There still are some countries holding back, but they are few in number," said Olberg.

"It's the United States and it's India," he continued.

"But the thing that kind of gives me hope that we will land this thing is that nobody -- including the United States and India -- is saying they don't want reform.

"We are getting there, we are close, and the final push will have to be done by ministers themselves" in Yaounde, said Olberg.

The WTO has been going through turbulence for several years.

Its mechanism for resolving trade disputes has also been effectively paralysed since December 2019, because of the United States blocking the appointment of judges to the appellate body.

Negotiations are stalled, and some WTO rules are no longer considered fit for purpose by certain countries, including the United States.

The organisation operates on the principle of finding consensus among all 166 members.

The planned reforms aim to improve it by more easily integrating plurilateral negotiations -- something India is not particularly in favour of, unlike the United States.

Western countries also want the WTO to guarantee fairer competition by addressing massive subsidies and distortions linked to industrial policies.

They believe, in particular, that the existing rules are insufficient for regulating China's hybrid economic model, which combines market forces and state intervention.

S.Barghouti--SF-PST