Jakarta - The World Trade Organisation (WTO) meets for a crunch summit in Bali, Indonesia, this week, billed as a do-or-die attempt to salvage an elusive deal on global commerce and, with it, the 159-member trade body’s own relevance.
New chief Roberto Azevedo will be seeking to defy the odds and push through an agreement that could lead to relaunching the Doha round of talks on slashing world trade barriers.
But hopes for success are low after the WTO failed to agree on even a modest deal to put to trade ministers who will open the four-day gathering on the island of Bali tomorrow.
At stake is the future of trade multilateralism as regional pacts are increasingly favoured by major trading nations, such as the Asia Pacific-focused Trans-Pacific Partnership pushed aggressively by Washington, analysts say.
Sergio Marchi, Canada’s past trade minister and former WTO envoy, said “failure in Bali will be very unkind to the WTO after 12 years of missed deadlines and opportunities” on the Doha round. “There will be a high cost to its credibility and relevance.”
The Doha round, launched in Qatar in 2001, aims for a wide-ranging accord to open markets and remove trade barriers, with a focus on helping poorer countries.
Azevedo, Brazil’s former trade envoy who took the helm in September, has cited some estimates that say it could provide a $1 trillion (R10 trillion) boost to global commerce.
But the talks have stalled repeatedly as rich countries, emerging powers such as China and India, and the world’s poorest nations spar over the give and take needed to craft a deal. The WTO’s requirement that deals be unanimously agreed by all members has complicated matters.
But despite an intense push by Azevedo and signs that diplomats were coming close on lower-level thematic accords that could be fed into a wider package later, negotiations in Geneva stumbled last week over issues including food security and customs procedures. WTO diplomats engaged in last-ditch talks on Thursday hailed a “breakthrough” on simplifying customs measures to facilitate trade, indicating that poor countries would be given flexibility to implement new rules under discussion.
Failure in Bali may relegate the WTO to the role of merely settling disputes between members, observers say. Such disputes could loom on the sidelines, including a bitter row between Russia and the EU over Moscow’s car import duties. – Sapa-AFP