2024-02-28 20:02:17
This content was published on February 28, 2024 – 9:06 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) India and South Africa inflicted a first setback on the WTO ministerial in Abu Dhabi. They refused on Wednesday to anchor an agreement finalized on Sunday by more than 120 countries, including Switzerland. Another problem is that Washington does not clarify the approach to reform.
In a statement in the followingnoon during a discussion on development, India and South Africa considered that the agreement on the facilitation of investments for development might not be part of the ministerial menu . This might come up once more in the discussion before a body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.
Switzerland and more than 120 countries announced on Sunday evening that they had finalized their agreement. And according to estimates, increased investment linked to bureaucratic facilitation might lead to up to nearly 1.5% of global economic growth per year.
But the leaders of the initiative wanted the quarter of WTO members who did not participate to add this arrangement to the organization’s rules. “Achieving this would already be significant” at the ministerial level, said Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Monday, who sees one of the possibilities of success of the meeting being eliminated.
On Wednesday, the 164 members also began the discussion on the big part of the ministerial, the reform of the institution. This gave rise to “a very positive signal”, according to a European official. “There was a clear desire to continue to engage and find a solution,” she adds. But “there was nothing concrete”, according to a delegate from a regional bloc.
Renewed commitment
In a video message Monday at the start of the ministerial, Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin warned his counterparts. Without reform, “commercial policy will be made increasingly outside the organization”.
For Switzerland, this involves discussions on new themes such as the role of trade in the fight once morest climate change. But the institution must above all resolve the blockage in its appeals court, made dysfunctional for five years by the United States.
However, Switzerland is in the middle of a dispute with Washington over additional customs taxes launched by former US President Donald Trump. The American appeal, following Berne had won its case, cannot be decided for the moment, depriving the Swiss side of compensation.
The United States no longer wants the same system, without revealing what it wants. They are clearly once morest maintaining an appeal mechanism, notes a source close to the discussions. No decision will be taken on the settlement of disputes in Abu Dhabi. But ministers must move forward to honor their pledge almost two years ago in Geneva of a solution by the end of this year.
“Most member countries want this objective to be maintained,” the head of the Swiss delegation, Secretary of State Helene Budliger Artieda, told Keystone-ATS. “It’s a good starting point” because “we wouldn’t be credible” otherwise, she insists.
Moratorium essential for Switzerland
According to converging sources, the American trade representative Katherine Tai, although she spoke of openness, nevertheless repeated her usual statements on the difficulty of the situation.
She had asked that this 13th ministerial session be one of reform. A success “will not be measured by the number of agreements reached this week, but by the work of ministers to establish an avant-garde approach” on all questions, she estimated at the start of the meeting.
Members also began their discussions to renew or not the moratorium on taxes on electronic broadcasts. India, South Africa and even Indonesia, which explain that they are losing income, are among the few countries which threaten this extension for two years.
The moratorium is “indispensable,” Swiss Ambassador to the WTO Erwin Bollinger recently told Keystone-ATS. Abandoning this system would cost rich states 0.5% of their gross domestic product (GDP). But, even more, 2.5% to developing countries.
Without a moratorium, “a country might decide on taxes” on the electronic distribution of films or an international online medical consultation, says a European official. The objections of certain countries “are more or less the same,” he adds. This question will really be addressed when a package on the other agreements is negotiated towards the end of the ministerial.
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