SEE ALSO After: What next? Seven talking points after the WTO’s 2024 Ministerial Conference Before: Cynics circle as another WTO Ministerial Conference heads for small pickings Definitely. Maybe. Unlikely. Who knows? Issues on the WTO conference agenda By Peter Ungphakorn and Robert Wolfe POSTED APRIL 5, 2024 | UPDATED APRIL 5, 2024 Judging by the WTO website’s coverage, the World Trade Organization’s Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference was a success, albeit a qualified one, at least in WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s assessments. Is this credible? “Despite the more than challenging co ..read more

SEE ALSO Something needs to be done about plurilaterals (in Seven talking points after the WTO’s 2024 Ministerial Conference) In General Council India alone opposes investment deal as a WTO agreement Comment: on India’s claim that a plurilateral WTO deal is ‘illegal’ Technical note: types of plurilateral deals and adding them to WTO rules Explainer: The 18 WTO plurilaterals and ‘joint-statement initiatives’ Technical note: Participation in WTO plurilateral talks By Peter Ungphakorn POSTED MARCH 22, 2024 | UPDATED MARCH 22, 2024 India and South Africa, now joined by Tür ..read more

SEE ALSO Objections dropped on services regulation say nothing about other plurilaterals Plurilateral services commitments from 53 members certified, leaving 17 to go South Africa drops objections to 27 plurilateral services commitments Experts: India, S.Africa unlikely to succeed in blocking WTO services deal AND Technical note: types of plurilateral deals and adding them to WTO rules Explainer: The 18 WTO plurilaterals and ‘joint-statement initiatives’ Technical note: Participation in WTO plurilateral talks By Peter Ungphakorn POSTED MARCH 6, 2024 | UPDATED MARC ..read more

SEE ALSO Plurilateral services commitments from 53 members certified, leaving 17 to go Experts: India, S.Africa unlikely to succeed in blocking WTO services deal AND Technical note: types of plurilateral deals and adding them to WTO rules Explainer: The 18 WTO plurilaterals and ‘joint-statement initiatives’ Technical note: Participation in WTO plurilateral talks By Peter Ungphakorn POSTED FEBRUARY 28, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 28, 2024 Most of the reports coming from the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi speak of the new plurilateral agreement on ..read more

SEE ALSO South Africa drops objections to 27 plurilateral services commitments Experts: India, S.Africa unlikely to succeed in blocking WTO services deal AND Technical note: types of plurilateral deals and adding them to WTO rules Explainer: The 18 WTO plurilaterals and ‘joint-statement initiatives’ Technical note: Participation in WTO plurilateral talks By Peter Ungphakorn POSTED FEBRUARY 27, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 27, 2024 At the last-minute India has dropped its objections, allowing a plurilateral agreement to streamline domestic services regulations to be fully legal i ..read more

SEE ALSO In depth: Behind the rhetoric: ‘Public stockholding for food security’ in the WTO WTO fact sheet: The Bali decision on stockholding for food security in developing countries All stories on this topic (tagged “food stockholding”) By Peter Ungphakorn POSTED FEBRUARY 25, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 25, 2024 It almost wrecked the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference in Bali in 2013. It delayed by a year the final agreement on an entirely separate topic: trade facilitation. It caused agriculture to be dropped completely from the 2022 Ministerial Conference in Geneva. And now ..read more

SEE ALSO The big-picture: Cynics circle as another WTO Ministerial Conference heads for small pickings By Peter Ungphakorn and Robert Wolfe POSTED FEBRUARY 21, 2024UPDATED FEBRUARY 21, 2024 Two large but stubborn members may prevent ministers from agreeing on anything important at the World Trade Organization’s upcoming Ministerial Conference, and so the cynics are circling with doom-laden prophecies that “the WTO” is likely to fail again. One is India, which is demanding the impossible in agriculture and threatening to block several other issues supported by a majority of WTO members. The oth ..read more

SEE ALSO The issues: Definitely. Maybe. Unlikely. Who knows? Issues on the WTO conference agenda By Peter Ungphakorn and Robert Wolfe POSTED FEBRUARY 21, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 21, 2024 The cynics are circling the World Trade Organization’s upcoming Ministerial Conference with doom-laden prophecies that the “WTO” is likely to fail, again. The cans that were kicked down the road in Geneva in 2022 are now supposed to produce content in Abu Dhabi in 2024. The prospects of that are sobering. But the WTO is not just its Ministerial Conferences, and the purpose of these conferences is not merely co ..read more

SEE ALSO Chair upbeat about members’ approach to final WTO fish subsidies push Chair issues new draft before final fisheries subsidies month Updates, timeline and links AND All articles tagged “fisheries subsidies” | Technical note on subsidies for fisheries By Peter Ungphakorn POSTED FEBRUARY 19, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 19, 2024 The fisheries subsidies draft for the World Trade Organization’s February 26–29, 2024 Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi was published on February 16 along with a detailed explanation by the chair, Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland. “All members are ve ..read more

SEE ALSO Experts: India, S.Africa unlikely to succeed in blocking WTO services deal AND Technical note: types of plurilateral deals and adding them to WTO rules Explainer: The 18 WTO plurilaterals and ‘joint-statement initiatives’ Technical note: Participation in WTO plurilateral talks By Peter Ungphakorn POSTED FEBRUARY 17, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 17, 2024 Ten days before the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference South Africa has dropped its objections to 54 WTO members implementing an agreement to streamline domestic regulation in services, leaving only India disse ..read more