The World Trade Organization’s members cleared a package of trade deals, including pledges on health, reform and food security, struck after more than five days of hard negotiations.
Representatives of the 164 countries, including India, cheered after the package was passed before Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala addressed them early on Friday. “The package of agreements you have reached will make a difference to the lives of people around the world,” she said. “”The outcomes demonstrate that the WTO is in fact capable of responding to emergencies of our time.”
For the first time subsides on overfishing, deep sea fishing and Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing were addressed through the proposed pact. “On India’s instance sovereign sights on EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zones) have been firmly established. It is really a big achievement,” PTI, quoting a source reported, adding that principal stakeholders who have benefited from these “historic decisions” taken by the 12th ministerial conference of the WTO are fishermen, farmers, food security, multilateralism, and trade and business, particularly digital economy and MSMEs.