MC12 “Geneva package”
- The package of agreements secured at the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) held in Geneva on 12-17 June was the culmination of efforts by WTO members to provide concrete trade-related responses to important challenges facing the world today.
- The outcomes reached on fisheries subsidies, the WTO response to the pandemic, food insecurity, e-commerce and other issues.
Fisheries subsidies:
- WTO members have forged an Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies which sets new global rules to curb harmful subsidies and protect global fish stocks in a manner that also recognizes the needs of fishers in developing and least-developed countries (LDCs).
- It is the first WTO agreement to place environmental sustainability at its core.
- The agreement prohibits support for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
- It bans support for fishing in overfished stocks.
- It takes a first but significant step forward to curb subsidies for overcapacity and overfishing by ending subsidies for fishing on the unregulated high seas.
- The Agreement enters into force upon acceptance of its legal instrument by two-thirds of the membership.
WTO response to the pandemic, including IP response:
- In response to the ongoing impact of COVID-19, members adopted a Ministerial Declaration on the WTO response to the current and future pandemics.
- This includes a waiver of certain requirements under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) concerning the use of compulsory licences to produce COVID-19 vaccines.
- The TRIPS waiver compromise will contribute to ongoing efforts to deconcentrate and diversify vaccine manufacturing capacity, so that a crisis in one region does not leave others cut off.
Food insecurity:
- The MC12 outcome package on agriculture comprised a Ministerial Declaration on the emergency response to food insecurity and a Ministerial Decision on exempting World Food Programme (WFP) humanitarian food purchases from export prohibitions or restrictions.
- Both respond to demands from the international community for immediate action by WTO members to address food shortages and soaring food prices and ensure that the most vulnerable can access emergency food aid.
- The Declaration underlines the strong commitment by WTO members to take concrete steps to facilitate trade, which plays a vital role in improving global food security, and improve the functioning and resilience of global food markets.
- It also reaffirms the importance of not imposing export prohibitions or restrictions on agri-food trade in a WTO-inconsistent manner.
e-commerce work programme and moratorium:
- WTO members agreed to maintain their current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions and to intensify discussions among members on this topic.
More about World Trade Organisation:
- The World Trade Organization(WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade.
- With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that govern international trade.
- It officially commenced operations on 1 January 1995, pursuant to the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement, thus replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that had been established in 1948.
- The WTO is the world’s largest international economic organization, with 164 member states representing over 98% of global trade and global GDP.
- The WTO is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
- Its top decision-making body is the Ministerial Conference, which is composed of all member states and usually convenes biennially; consensus is emphasized in all decisions.
More about World Food Programme:
- The World Food Programme (WFP) is an international organization within the United Nations that provides food assistance.
- It is the world’s largest humanitarian organization and the leading provider of school meals.
- Founded in 1961, WFP is headquartered in Rome and has offices in 80 countries.
- As of 2021, it supported over 128 million people across more than 120 countries and territories.
- The World Food Programme was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020 for its efforts to provide food assistance in areas of conflict, and to prevent the use of food as a weapon of war and conflict.
- WFP operations are funded by voluntary donations principally from governments of the world, and also from corporations and private donors.
Syllabus: Prelims + Mains; GS III – Economy
