The World Trade Organization, reunited from June 12 to 17, paralyzed by the return of economic sovereignties, is trying to find a new legitimacy in the resolution of health, food and environmental crises, observes Julien Bouissou, in his column.
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The World Trade Organization (WTO) is looking for a new identity that is not just about eliminating customs barriers or to set up trade disputes between countries. The twelfth ministerial conference, which ended in Geneva on Friday June 17, was an opportunity for the WTO to conclude some agreements in the fields of fishing or patents. But this meeting was mainly the time to be essential in the resolution of crises that shake the planet, from the protection of biodiversity to food security.
In her long closing speech, the director general of the WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-iweala, did not say the words “Customs rights” only once, said nothing about the disturbances of the D channels ‘Supply or on the outbreak of maritime transport prices. On the other hand, she assured that the WTO could deal with questions relating to “common goods”, before welcoming herself to have signed “an agreement focused on environmental sustainability”, then to conclude that trade “was part of the solution of our time “.
In fact, the response to the food crisis is in part in the trade, maintaining for example the supply of wheat in importing countries, despite the war in Ukraine and the blockade of the Black Sea, or by dissuading States to impose restrictions on their exports. Thanks to an agreement that has just been signed in Geneva, the World Food Program (PAM) will be exempt from these restrictions and will be able to buy agricultural raw materials in all countries.
If, as experts fear, global pandemics will be more frequent, the WTO also has a role to play in facilitating exchanges of medical equipment. The Geneva institution has negotiated an agreement, certainly fragile and limited, but which could serve as a model during the next pandemics. It authorizes developing countries to manufacture vaccines against COVVI-19, without the authorization of patent holders, and for a limited period of five years.
Finally, the WTO wanted to show that it could participate in the protection of biodiversity by eliminating the subsidies intended for fishermen who overexpose certain fish populations. The agreement found in Geneva is limited to the species already threatened.
“Strategic autonomy”
The new international context forces the WTO to change its reason for being. Since its creation, in January 1995, trade has doubled in volume and customs rates have dropped on average 9 %. This period of hypermondialization, which lasted until the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, resulted in an increase in exchanges, but also by numerous relocations and destruction of jobs in rich countries. Multinational companies have benefited from a low -cost workforce from developing countries, by weaving complex – and fragile value chains – around the world.
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