“What remains to be decided requires political will – and I know you have it – to get us over the finish line,” she said.“Let me be clear, even landing one or two will not be an easy road. The road will be bumpy and rocky. There may be a landmine along the way,” Okonjo-Iweala said, adding she was “cautiously optimistic” that the meeting would conclude with one or two deals.
She also cautioned ministers to recognize that compromises are never perfect. The WTO’s 164 members take decisions by consensus, meaning a single member can block progress, and negotiations often last years. The 27-year-old WTO is itself in trouble. Former US president Donald Trump crippled the WTO’s Appellate Body that rules on disputes over two years ago, and WTO members have only ever agreed one global deal, the red-tape cutting Trade Facilitation Agreement, in 2013.
In a sign of the global difficulties, Sunday’s opening session meeting was dedicated to “challenges facing the multilateral trading system.” Campaign groups gathered near the body’s lakeside headquarters over the weekend, some denouncing capitalism and others calling for an end to “vaccine apartheid.” They were all barred from entering the WTO headquarters on Sunday on security grounds, according to an email seen by Reuters.
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