The World Trade Organization (WTO) reached this Friday morning its biggest agreement in almost a decade at the XII Ministerial Summit, held in Geneva, Switzerland.
The director general of the WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, described as “unprecedented” the result of the negotiations between the 164 members, presented the agreements and urged that they be approved.
The package includes a scaled-down deal on fisheries subsidies, an extension of the e-commerce moratorium, pandemic response text along with a decision to allow flexibility on intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, a food security text, a commitment to exempt World Food Program purchases from export restrictions and the launch of discussions on WTO reform.
In a letter introducing the documents, Okonjo-Iweala asked members to consider the “delicate balance” struck during five days of nearly 24-hour talks that have been fraught with anger and frustration at times.
“The package of agreements they have reached will make a difference to people’s lives around the world,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “The results show that the WTO is capable of responding to the emergencies of our time.” The first agreement to be made public was one to extend a moratorium on the application of tariffs on electronic transmissions until the next ministerial conference of the WTO or no later than March 2024, despite the opposition of China.
The value of the global e-commerce market stood at 4 trillion 822.106 million dollars in 2020. This same market registered a historical growth (compound annual growth rate -CAGR-) of 15% during 2017–2020 and increased 14% in 2021 , reaching 5 billion 496,164 million dollars.
From the perspective of the Mexican government, the moratorium in the WTO is expected to be maintained at a time when electronic commerce is increasing at a rapid pace.