What was yesterday’s lifesaver to bring about trade between countries and to bring down the barriers is today’s thorn in the side of the world. The WTO is dying a slow and painful death and has neared the end of its life today. As the global agreement collapses amidst the Indian demand to be able to stockpile food for itself and for countries that are developing around the world, the WTO cannot live much longer. It will be dead within a short while.
There’s no salvaging of anything today even after the 11th hour negotiations to get India to back down on its demands. The deadline for signing the deal was set at midnight on Thursday and the 160 members of the WTO have failed dismally to come to an agreement.
Telling times of the world today in which we live
Everybody is receding into the recesses of their own interest rather than making concessions to anyone. TheWTO is relatively young and was only founded two decades ago but the life it has lived is now obviously coming to an end. No deal can be reached on global trade and that would have been a world’s first in itself.
The Director General of the Geneva-based organization Roberto Azevêdo stated: “We have not been able to find a solution that would allow us to bridge that gap. We tried everything we could. But it has not proved possible. The fact we do not have a conclusion means that we are entering a new phase in our work – a phase which strikes me as being full of uncertainties”. The future is not full of uncertainties at all. One certainty is that it’s impossible to reach a global trade agreement.
The WTO will just be the wise old fool that people go to in order to settle disputes if it lives on in any capacity. But, it is certainly not going to be the instigator of anything that is remotely likely to reduce trade barriers or to set up a forum for the liberalization of trade talks.
But, it’s the West that was unable to give in and yet it had the most to gain from an agreement like the one being put forward. The inflexibility, the stiff rules and regulations that people never want broken will leave some out in the cold and will also leave developed countries without that extra mile that they need to go to improve their economies. India will be stockpiling whether they get the agreement of the WTO or not.
The Australian Minister of Trade Andrew Robb stated: “Australia is deeply disappointed that it has not been possible to meet the deadline. This failure is a great blow to the confidence revived in Bali that the WTO can deliver negotiated outcomes. There are no winners from this outcome, least of all those in developing countries which would see the biggest gains”.
India said that it wanted to return to the negotiation table and hammer out a deal, despite not reaching one here and now. That simply means that they are open to getting what they want and if they don’t then the talks will just be endless. What the developed world doesn’t like is that India has stood up and will be towering over the West much to their dismay.
India was even threatened with being excluded. How can you exclude the second most populous country in the world from a global trade agreement? Easily, if you are focused on your own interests rather than anyone else’s. Drama and kids playing in the sandpit out in the back yard rather than high-level negotiations on a trade agreement that would bring down barriers around the world.
But Bali in December 2013 favored big business and left the developing countries on a shoe-string. It was exploitation at its best and that’s why it will never be accepted. Azevêdo was even tearful at the closing ceremony in Bali and said that “For the first time in our history, the WTO has truly delivered”. Delivered what? They hoped that they had delivered a means of boosting the developed countries’ economies.
The WTO took twenty-odd years to get to a global agreement and it still hasn’t got there. The deal would bring in $960 billion in trade, but that wouldn’t be for the world’s poorest. The scheme by the Indian government to pay farmers a minimum wage, stockpile food and feed 800 million is worthless by comparison of the billions that developed countries would get. Feeding people doesn’t stand a chance when the dollars are being notched up. We know that already.
Perhaps the WTO should be allowed to die after all.
Originally Posted: WTO Dying a Slow Death [3]
