World Trade Organization (WTO) members have failed to resolve differences over the implementation of a Trade Facilitation Agreement reached last year in Bali, casting a pall over the future of the WTO as negotiating forum.
“Of course it is true that everything remains in play until midnight — but at present there is no workable solution on the table, and I have no indication that one will be forthcoming,” WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said Thursday during an informal meeting of the WTO’s 160 member countries. “If anyone has an idea, which has not already been proposed or tested, then please inform the General Council chair that this may still be doable,” he added. “But, as I say, I have no indication that this is the case.”
India and a few other countries balked at implementing the pact, saying not enough attention had been paid to food security concerns and other issues agreed at the Bali meeting in December.
