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TRADE: In Bali, the WTO sealed an historic agreement on world trade

 

The World Trade Organization (WTO) sealed, Saturday, December 7, a qualified historic agreement on world trade, the first since its inception there almost 19 years. Réunissur the Indonesian island of Bali since Tuesday, the ministers of the 159 member states of the organization have unanimously adopted a series of reforms.

Package as a minimum, the agreement covers three areas: agriculture (with a commitment to reduce export subsidies), development aid (for greater exemption from customs to products from the least developed countries) and "trade facilitation", which aims to reduce bureaucracy at borders.

According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, based in Washington, the impact of the Bali agreement on global economic activity could amount to $ 960 billion (700 billion euros). And it would create 21 million jobs, including 18 million in developing countries.

"The WTO has really succeeded"

"For the first time in our history, the WTO has been very successful," welcomed its CEO, Brazilian Roberto Azevedo, arrived in September to head of the organization. "This time, all member countries acted together. We gave the word 'global' in the symbol of our organization, "he said after the negotiations. "We are back to business [...] Bali is only the beginning."

Launched in 2001, the round called "Doha" in which was part of the conference, had this led to no tangible progress day.

France also welcomed the developments: "This agreement is crucial. Failure would have signed the end of the WTO. We must now give a new impetus to multilateralism, "said the French Minister of Foreign Trade, Nicole Bricq.

The prospect of failure was indeed feared after objections raised by Cuba and India. Havana had requested that the U.S. lift the embargo in place for half a century, but a compromise formulation was finally reached with Washington.

As for the government in New Delhi, he was required to retain the right to implement a food aid program intended to provide some 800 million people the means to feed themselves, but this policy is contrary to WTO ceiling on aid to agriculture to 10% of production. The problem was however solved by the promise of a sustainable approach within four years.

With AFP and Reuters