Covid vaccines, food, fisheries figure in WTO's 'significant' deals package

The World Trade Organisation has concluded hard-won deals on fishing subsidies, food insecurity and Covid-19 vaccines in a landmark bundle of agreements secured through hectic round-the-clock talks.

WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said on Friday the trade ministers' conference had struck an "unprecedented package of deliverables" which would "make a difference to the lives of people..."

The talks at the trade body's Geneva headquarters began on Sunday and were due to wrap up on Wednesday. But instead the WTO's 164 members went straight through on into Friday, concluding at around 0300 GMT.

The ministerial conference also agreed on deals on e-commerce, responding to pandemics and reforming the organisation itself.

"Not in a long while has the WTO seen such a significant number of multilateral outcomes," Okonjo-Iweala said. 

"The package of agreements you have reached will make a difference to the lives of people around the world. The outcomes demonstrate that the WTO is in fact capable of responding to the emergencies of our time."

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Key agreements

The fisheries deal was the last one to get over the line. Delegations were frantically haggling in the early hours of Friday on the flagship issue being thrashed out at the WTO conference.

Negotiations towards banning subsidies that encourage overfishing and threaten the sustainability of the planet's fish stocks have been going on at the WTO for more than 20 years.

Some delegations accused India of being intransigent on every topic under discussion at the WTO — where decisions can only pass with the agreement of every member.

But Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal insisted: "India is not a roadblock on anything...People are realising that we were the ones who actually helped create the sole consensus."

The second major issue on the table was the plan for a Covid-19 vaccine patents waiver.

Some countries that host major pharmaceutical companies, like Britain and Switzerland, were finding some of the draft wording problematic, while big pharma feared a deal that would strangle innovation.

But Britain's ambassador in Geneva, Simon Manley, told Okonjo-Iweala late on Thursday that after clarification and improvements were achieved, London was "now ready to join the consensus".

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