WTO Salvages Bali Trade Deal

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Francezka Nangoy & Tito Summa Siahaan, December 7, 2013

WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo of Brazil delivers a speech during the
 opening of the Ninth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference
in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Dec. 3 2013. (EPA Photo/Made Nagi)

Nusa Dua, Bali. World Trade Organization members on Saturday approved a last-minute plan for a trade deal that could boost the global economy by $1 trillion, securing a new lease on life or the organization.

“It is so agreed,” Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan told delegates, following tough negotiations that stretched into the early hours of the morning.

After a cliff-hanger end to the midnight-to-dawn meeting, following protracted negations with India and eleventh-hour objections from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia, the conference accepted the Bali Package — a set of trade liberalizations contained in ten documents.

The accord included commitments to facilitate trade by simplifying customs procedures.

The United States and India “embraced” the deal after a longstanding disagreement on agricultural subsides.

“For the first time in our history the WTO has truly delivered,” exhausted-looking WTO director-general Roberto Azevedo said at the closing ceremony. “We will now be able to move forward… This is an important stepping stone to the completion of Doha Development Agenda.”

The Doha Development Agenda, a broad-based agreement to lower trade barriers, has been stalled since 2008.

Today’s Bali agreement falls far short of the WTO’s lofty but elusive vision of tearing down all trade barriers around the world. But Azevedo said it would have important symbolic value for the trade body’s hopes of reviving Doha.

Critics of the WTO argue that the organization upholds double standards for its developed and developing members and may hurt food security and job creation in some countries.

Additional reporting from AFP

An emotional Roberto Azevedo is comforted during the

 closing ceremony of the WTO talks. Photograph: Edgar

Su/Reuters

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