WTO meeting ends, no consensus reached on main issues
India had also demanded the imposition of tax on e-commerce imports and said that only a few select companies of developed countries actually benefit from e-commerce.
The 5-day long meeting of the World Trade Organization in Abu Dhabi has come to an end. The major issues of international trade which were expected to be resolved, remain unresolved due to the stubborn attitude of the developed countries. WTO has released the draft on its website.
Before the meeting, it was expected that this time India’s grain procurement programme would get legal recognition at the global level on the WTO platform. But no decision has been taken on this in the 13th ministerial-level meeting of the international organisation.
Sources say Brazil did not agree on the issue of giving legal recognition to the grain procurement program.
India also wanted strict action should be taken against countries involved in fishing activities in remote waters and subsidies on fishing should also be banned. Sources say that China opposed this demand. Beijing has not allowed a consensus to be reached on this issue among the WTO member countries.
India had also demanded the imposition of tax on e-commerce imports and said that only a few select companies of developed countries actually benefit from e-commerce. It was decided in the meeting that the exemption given on e-commerce imports will remain in force till the next ministerial level meeting i.e. MC-14 and after that it will automatically be withdrawn.
India had another big demand regarding the 13th ministerial level meeting of WTO in which she has pitched that a committee should be formed soon to speed up dispute settlements in WTO. Even in the 12th meeting, many member countries including India had put forth this demand. It was informed that work is being done on the committee to be formed for dispute settlements.
The WTO ministerial meeting held in Abu Dhabi was scheduled for February 26 to February 29 but after 4 days of talks, it was decided to extend the duration of the meeting by one more day. There was hope that this time a consensus would be reached on some major issues. But the result of the meetings that lasted for 5 days was not very satisfactory.