TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Jul22/06)
20 July 2022
Third World Network

Trade: WTO DG's assertions about MC12 flying from facts?
Published in SUNS #9617 dated 18 July 2022

Geneva, 15 Jul (D. Ravi Kanth) -- Several comments made by the World Trade Organization's Director-General, Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, at an informal Heads of Delegation (HoD) meeting on 7 July, seem to "fly from facts", particularly her assertion that the "conclusion" of the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement "marks the first Sustainable Development Goal target that has been fulfilled - 14.6."

The DG's comments, as the chair of the Doha Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), delivered at the informal HoD meeting on 7 July, were highlighted in a restricted document (Job/GC/314) circulated on 12 July.

The restricted document reveals several assertions made by the DG that apparently failed to correspond with the facts, said people familiar with the document.

FISHERIES SUBSIDIES AGREEMENT

In her comments at the HoD meeting, after recounting the "highly positive" responses that she received from the G-7 leaders (Group of Seven countries - the United States, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan plus the European Union), the DG said that "we adopted a new agreement on fisheries subsidies."

"This is an historic agreement in many ways, which we should not underestimate," she continued, arguing that "this is only the second time in its 27 years of existence [that] the WTO has formally [adopted] for acceptance an entirely new Multilateral Agreement."

In the past, the former WTO DG, Mr Roberto Azevedo, had claimed that the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), adopted in December 2013, was the first multilateral agreement after the WTO came into existence in 1995.

During a celebration of the TFA on 2 June 2017, he said that the TFA "was a truly historic breakthrough," adding that "as the first multilateral deal since the WTO was created in 1995, the TFA demonstrated beyond doubt that the WTO can deliver." He also said that the TFA is "innovative."

Therefore, it is not clear whether Azevedo's assertion about the TFA or the current DG's claim about the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement are true.

It is normal practice for successive Director-Generals to claim whatever they accomplish as "historic" and the first of its kind.

Nevertheless, the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement, as and when it is concluded, will remain as the first environmental sustainability agreement at its core.

It is however a different question whether the environmental sustainability issues have been adequately addressed in the agreement.

More importantly, in her comments at the HoD meeting, Ms Okonjo-Iweala said the "conclusion of this Agreement marks the first Sustainable Development Goal target that has been fulfilled - 14.6."

The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 14.6 states, "by 2020, prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminate subsidies that contribute to IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing and refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognizing that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiation."

According to the UN SDG 14.6 template, the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement ought to have addressed/concluded the disciplines on fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing (OC&OF) due to their harmful effects in depleting global fish stocks.

However, this whole pillar, which in the chair's text preserved the harmful subsidies for the biggest subsidizers such as the European Union, the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Chinese Taipei, and China, has been left out due to sharp differences over the lack of balance and stringent special and differential treatment (S&DT) provisions.

In her comments at the HoD meeting, the DG said that "reactions from world leaders as well as civil society have been overwhelmingly positive even though they say that it could have been more but the reaction is very positive," adding that "in Lisbon (during the conference on the oceans), the agreement, when it was announced afterwards there, was greeted with loud applause and everywhere I have gone and in all my contacts, it has been very welcomed."

Even the limited, partial Fisheries Subsidies Agreement will only come into force when two-thirds of the WTO members deposit their instruments of acceptance of the protocol amending the WTO Agreement.

The prospects of an early submission of their instruments of acceptance of the protocol seem slim at this juncture, as why would countries agree to an incomplete agreement without knowing what they are going to get in OC&OF pillar?

Overwhelmed by praise from the Singaporean trade envoy, who apparently said that MC12 succeeded because of "thinking differently, doing differently, delivering differently", the DG said that "I am really happy that we are going to move into the post summer period with that kind of mindset."

DG'S CONCLUDING REMARKS

However, the DG's apparent happiness seems to have turned sour with around 40 members complaining about lack of transparency and inclusivity at MC12, where many countries were excluded from participating in small room and "green room" discussions, said people, who asked not to be quoted.

The DG's concluding remarks at the HoD meeting, as contained in document Job/GC/314, appear to disapprove members' claims.

The DG said that "this has been a very good discussion and a good set of feedback on how you saw things."

Ms Okonjo-Iweala maintained that "I ordinarily was not going to say something about several comments that were made on how MC12 transpired, but I think some of the comments made have led me to push back a bit and perhaps remind Members of certain things that we were dealing with."

In an apparent riposte to members' disappointment with the way MC12 was conducted, the DG said that "the first is that Members have forgotten that we had particular difficulties with the conjuncture we are in now with respect to the particular issue of how we negotiate with all Members due to the fact of the ongoing issue of the war."

The DG added that "so that created a bit of a problem, which you had seen before in terms of how we handle negotiations, and sometimes there were several small meetings going on in parallel discussing the same subject and then trying to bring it in together. So, I think all of them ended up being called green rooms when they were not."

"I began to wonder if there were green rooms that I did not know about because several Members who I saw in so-called green rooms are now also indicating that they were not there," the DG said, in an apparent reference to India, Indonesia, and several other countries that had expressed concerns about the lack of transparency and inclusivity at MC12.

"So, maybe there were some additional green rooms that I was not aware of. We will check into that next time," she said, without addressing the fact that participation in the small room/green room meetings depended on an invitation or entry pass.

The DG came down heavily on the LDCs, who were apparently not invited either to the small room or "green room" meetings.

She thanked "Chad because in Room D and the other so-called small negotiating groups, the LDC group was invited."

The DG said "I think [there] are maybe some internal communication issues among LDCs that they probably need to sort out but they were there," adding that "groups were represented in all of these rooms and I can see that perhaps with what was going on, representatives of groups reporting back to their group Members may have been difficult, because things were happening in real time."

She conceded that "admittedly, there are some Members who are not in groups and so they may not have been able to get the kind of information, but I just want to remind people about this and so maybe discussions of internal communications and giving enough time for that to take place could have helped."

"That being said," she said, "we take the comments made somewhat seriously."

She compared MC12 to MC10 that was held in Nairobi, Kenya, in December 2015, saying that she has not been "to any Ministerial" until now.

"This is my first one. But from those who have been in previous ones, I recall and, this does not in any way mean that two things not being done well make a right, but we should remember that in Nairobi only six countries negotiated for three days, as far as I am told and this was handed down to Members."

She mentioned that MC12 "had a messy process in a way but a lot of Members were involved."

Ms Okonjo-Iweala said that "in virtually every room, Members were represented, although in some cases those that were called to be there did not turn up and that may have been an issue. So, I just want us to sit back."

The DG's concluding remarks seemed somewhat akin to a line in George Orwell's 1984, which goes as follows: "the Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears".

The DG blamed the atmosphere in Geneva, saying that "it is very difficult to celebrate success, so I do want to remind ourselves of the big picture of what the US representative and Singapore pointed out to us."

"There is no Ministerial Conference that is a nice clean cut thing because of the way that things are handled," the DG said, while defending what seemed like an indefensible event at least in terms of process.

Apparently shifting the blame onto the members, the DG said that she concurs with the US that "if we (members) worked hard before and got some decisions made, it may not have been [as] difficult as it turned out to be. We were however not able to do that because there is a tendency to wait for Ministerials to solve everything."

Even in the run-up to MC12, the DG singularly focused on "green room" meetings on the proposed deliverables, and less on open room meetings.

However, she defended her allegedly questionable methods and means by saying that "coming in from the outside, I saw that right away and that is why I had maintained that perhaps [we] could look at having more frequent Ministerials - or, as some people called it, "de-dramatizing"."

Ms Okonjo-Iweala said "I understand that term has also been used when Pascal Lamy was here and he was told to de-dramatize the MCs and we have not done that."

"Something really needs to be done and I think it is having what Brazil proposed, so that we take one or two decisions at a time," she maintained.

Brazil had proposed the holding of annual ministerial conferences, which failed to garner any consensus.

The DG's solutions contained little novelty, particularly when she said that "we can actually work ahead and the General Council could approve multilateral outcomes ... The General Council has this power in the intervals between meetings of the Ministerial Conference."

The DG virtually ruled out the participation of all 164 members in deciding on crucial multilateral issues when she maintained that "it is evident that it is not going to be the nice, neat undertaking that anybody wishes because there are 164 Members represented by many delegates, so about 600 people involved. Negotiating with 600 people is not very possible in such a short amount of time, so I really want to end on this note of, can we think about how the work is done here?"

Quoting the US ambassador, the DG said that it is members who have to decide. "There is no phantom person - and the Secretariat has to navigate all of that and try to do the best it can to make things work."

"So, I just want to say that we need to think differently, act differently and work differently," she concluded, adding that members "need to trust the General Council to be able to take some decisions and not wait for Ministers. It has the power. We need to select those things we can do."

"I am saying all of this to push back a bit about the refrain I heard constantly because from what I observed, several of those saying they were not invited to be in the room were actually invited and they may not have been able to share more information," the DG insisted.

Ms Okonjo-Iweala claimed that "at the end of the day, you all delivered something unexpected," cautioning members not to "minimize it with the rest of the commentary. Run with it and see if you can build on it. That is my advice to you."

The DG continued to maintain that something was achieved, amidst doubts that what was achieved is a form of "kicking the can down the road", as the US Trade Representative claimed in one of the "green room" meetings, said people, who asked not to be quoted.

The DG expressed unhappiness that the "tendency here in Geneva to quickly run to the negative takes over."

She asked members not to do that," adding that "I am certainly not going to allow that to discourage me."

"If I had been listening to the negatives in this place, we would not have been able to move forward," she said, emphasizing on the need to "think positively sometimes... So that is my advice to you."

"Do not go away from here with the feeling of we were excluded, we did not do this or that. You achieved a big thing and everyone is acknowledging it. Do not beat yourselves up too much. Enjoy success for once," the DG concluded. +