WTO members have not given up on getting results in the negotiations on rules. This is essentially the message that came out from the Jamaican Ambassador Wayne McCook, chairman of the negotiating group on rules, in his first report to the members of the organisation since the ministerial conference in Nairobi at the end of last year.

“It is clear that members remain interested in finding ways to secure outcomes on rules,” he said during a meeting  on 22 March.

The Jamaican ambassador nevertheless recognised that, at present, there are significant differences between members on how the post-Nairobi talks should proceed.

While some delegations want to focus on specific areas, others emphasise the need to “find a balance” and to “respect certain principles” in efforts to achieve results , explained Wayne McCook.

During the last WTO ministerial conference, held in Nairobi from 15 to 19 December 2015, talks concerning the rules failed to produce significant results. The issues negotiated in the context of discussions on rules include the countervailing and anti-dumping, subsidies in the fisheries sector, as well as disciplines on regional trade agreements (RTAs).

Ultimately no decision was taken in Nairobi in this area, despite relatively intense negotiations and a series of informal meetings throughout that week. Two draft texts of the facilitator of the negotiations, bringing together various elements of the proposals made in the areas of countervailing measures and fisheries subsidies, met with resistance on several fronts a few hours before the end of the conference (see Bridges, December 23, 2015).

For now, the delegations which made some proposals in  rules negotiations stated clearly that they do not wish to resume talks as they left them off in Nairobi , said Wayne McCook . They do not want the texts discussed in Nairobi to impose limitations in the context of future work , particularly in terms of ambition.

The fisheries subsidies: a priority issue for African countries

Regarding subsidies in the fisheries sector in particular, the failure of Nairobi sparked mixed reactions. If some had been particularly disappointed by the lack of tangible results, others had stressed that the proposed text was in fact relatively weak.

The fisheries sector is of particular importance for a large number of island and coastal states, particularly in Africa, and it can represent a substantial proportion of national income. This is mostly the case of Senegal, for whom fishing accounts for 30 percent of exports and 600,000 direct jobs.

The subject was discussed recently during a recent visit to Dakar, Senegal of Roberto Azevêdo, the Director General of the WTO. Noting the lack of significant progress on fisheries subsidies, the Senegalese Trade Minister Alioune Sarr, indicated that WTO members should not abandon their efforts to make progress on this issue which is crucial to Senegal.

Source: ICTSD