WTO MC13 may not achieve much

Starting today, the trade ministers of 164 member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will be meeting for four days at Abu Dhabi for the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) to review the progress made since their last meeting at Geneva in June 2022 and try to agree on the way forward.

The briefing notes prepared by the WTO secretariat detailing the stand taken by various countries on the key issues to be discussed at MC13 show that the views of the member countries are quite divergent on every issue. So, expectations of substantive outcomes on any issue from MC13 are very low.

The global trading rules agreed at the conclusion of the Uruguay round of negotiations at Marrakesh in April 1994 that led to the establishment of the WTO have largely remained unchanged although the technological prowess, geopolitical power equations and economic strengths of the WTO member countries have changed significantly since then. Major hindrances to any reform of the WTO rules include the right of any member to stall decision making.