WTO DG Urges Faster Progress
in Trade Talks as Members Review Post-MC14 Negotiations
A meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) on 1 October provided
WTO members with an opportunity to take stock of the WTO's negotiating agenda six
months after the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Yaoundé and voice their views
on how to advance their work. Members heard readouts from the chairs of the negotiating
bodies about the state of play in their respective talks.
·
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala expressed
concern about the slow pace of negotiations since the WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference
(MC14) in Yaoundé.
·
She stressed that advancing trade negotiations
remains a core WTO function alongside ongoing WTO reform efforts.
·
The Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) meeting allowed
members to assess progress and discuss ways to accelerate negotiations.
Updates from
Key Negotiation Areas
·
Fisheries Subsidies:
Members showed urgency in advancing talks, with growing support for returning to
text-based negotiations and building on existing work rather than starting over.
·
Agriculture:
Members agreed agriculture remains a priority, though differences persist on how
negotiations should be structured. Further meetings are scheduled.
·
Services Trade:
Discussions focused on measuring progress in services commitments under regional
trade agreements, but members remain divided on the next steps.
·
Trade and Development:
Members successfully implemented commitments related to special and differential
treatment under SPS and TBT agreements, marking a significant achievement for developing
economies.
·
Geographical Indications (GIs):
Interest is increasing in a multilateral registration system for wines and spirits,
though no formal proposals have yet emerged.
Members' Reactions
·
Around 40 WTO members and groups shared views
on ongoing negotiations.
·
Many emphasized the importance of inclusiveness, consensus, and balanced outcomes.
·
Smaller delegations raised concerns about
overlapping meetings on WTO reform and negotiations.
·
Several members agreed that WTO reform and
negotiation efforts should move forward simultaneously.
Director-General's
Message
·
Okonjo-Iweala
urged members to show greater flexibility and avoid rigid negotiating positions.
·
She warned that refusing to compromise could
lead to continued deadlock.
·
Despite challenges, she remained optimistic
and called for urgent action to advance negotiations.
[ABS News Service/03.10.2026]
In her opening remarks as chair
of the TNC, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala acknowledged she had heard from
several members about the need to generate greater momentum in the WTO's negotiating
work post MC14. She stressed that the negotiating function remains essential alongside
ongoing WTO reform efforts.
"We all recognize that,
since MC14, the overall pace of negotiating activity has been relatively modest,"
DG Okonjo-Iweala said. "Today's meeting therefore
provides an opportunity for all heads of delegation to exchange views on where we
stand and, importantly, on how we can advance our negotiating work."
The chairs of five negotiating
bodies established by the TNC reported to members on the latest developments in
their respective negotiations.
Reporting in his capacity as
the chair of the negotiations on additional provisions for the WTO Agreement on
Fisheries Subsidies, Ambassador Leslie Ramsammy (Guyana) said discussions at a first
round of "Fish Week" negotiations the previous week as well as bilateral
consultations the chair held with 24 members and groups of members made him "cautiously
optimistic that we are moving towards a viable path forward."
Ambassador Ramsammy said he was
encouraged by the sense of urgency members continue to attach to these negotiations
as well as the strong momentum among the membership to return to text-based negotiations
as soon as possible. While the question remains
on what basis those negotiations should resume, no member suggested that discussions
should start from scratch or that the substantial body of work developed over many
years should be discarded, he said.
More information on the fisheries
subsidies negotiations is available here.
Reporting in his capacity as
chair of the agriculture negotiations, Ambassador Ali Sarfraz Hussain (Pakistan)
reported on the most recent meeting of the negotiating group, which took place on 23 September. At that meeting, most members reaffirmed that agriculture
remains a core priority but that views continued to diverge on whether and how the
negotiations should prioritize issues that have been the subject of previous decisions,
he reported.
Ambassador Hussain said he was
encouraged by the constructive engagement of members as reflected in the numerous
concrete suggestions put forward on possible ways to advance the negotiations. Further negotiations will take place on 27 October
and 23 November, he added.
Reporting in his capacity as
the chair of the negotiations on services, Ambassador Adamu Mohammed Abdulhamid
(Nigeria) said recent discussions focused on a proposal by a group of members to
examine progress made in services commitments under regional trade agreements. Further discussions would be needed to converge
on the way forward, with certain members having reservations about such discussions,
he added.
Ambassador Abdulhamid noted that
the negotiating group is tasked with carrying out the built-in mandate in the General Agreement on Trade in Services in a manner similar to the negotiating
group on agriculture, but that it has proved more difficult to generate discussions
in services than in agriculture. He expressed
hope that members could agree to work towards building an agenda that reflects all
key areas of interest and said he remained available to discuss with all delegations
that want to explore work in this area.
Speaking on behalf of Ambassador
Kadra Ahmed Hassan (Djibouti), chair of the negotiations on trade and development,
Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang said Ambassador
Hassan was pleased to report that members have fulfilled their commitment under
the Decision on Enhancing the Precise, Effective and Operational
Implementation of Special and Differential Treatment Provisions of the Sanitary
and Phytosanitary (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreements adopted at the 14th Ministerial
Conference (MC14) last March. This is a significant achievement, underscoring the
importance of cross-collaboration between the negotiating group on trade and development
and relevant technical committees to foster a shared understanding amongst members
of the issues at hand, the chair reported.
As for the seven remaining Agreement-Specific Proposals from the G-90 group of developing
and least developed members, the chair reported that work will depend on how members
and the G-90 decide to take this forward. The chair encouraged the G-90 to continue
engaging with other members towards finding practical approaches to address the
remaining issues on the table.
Reporting in his capacity as
the chair of the negotiations on a multilateral system of notification and registration
of geographical indications (GIs) for wines and spirits, Ambassador Alfredo Suescum (Panama) said he has continued informal engagement with
interested GI stakeholders. These exchanges suggest a changing mood among them,
with some who initially had limited awareness of the negotiations now showing growing
interest in exploring how a multilateral GI register could be useful in today's
context, he said.
While these discussions remain
exploratory, some stakeholders are working among themselves to consolidate their
ideas and identify possible avenues for moving forward, Ambassador Suescum said. They recognize that any initiative at the WTO
would require engagement with the relevant authorities and WTO delegations. At this
stage, no concrete proposals have emerged, he noted.
Forty WTO members, some speaking
on behalf of groups of members, took the floor after the chairs spoke. The interventions outlined members' positions
and addressed specific concerns in each of the areas under negotiation.
More generally, members underscored
the importance of inclusiveness, consensus and balanced outcomes in the negotiations.
Several delegations expressed concern about overlaps between meetings on WTO reform
and the negotiating sessions, particularly for smaller delegations.
Many, including the Director-General,
said the reform talks and the negotiations reinforced each other, and should proceed
simultaneously.
In her concluding remarks, the
Director-General urged members to consider what negotiations truly entail and to
move beyond rigid positions by showing greater flexibility.
"Please, people should not
put down their position and then walk away and say, if you don't do it the way I
want, then I'm not going to move," she said. "If we continue that way, then I don't know
why we are all here."
"I'm not walking away from
this room discouraged," she added. "I
want you to know that I'm walking away saying we have work to do . we will not take impasse as a yes. We have to move, and
we have to move expeditiously."
The Trade Negotiations Committee
supervises the overall conduct of WTO members' trade negotiations under the authority
of the General Council. Consisting of all WTO members and observer governments,
the TNC meets whenever necessary to discuss progress in the negotiations. The TNC is chaired by the Director-General.