Published on :
The Trade Ministers of the member countries of the World Trade Organization are meeting from this Sunday, June 12 and until June 15 in person in Geneva. A first in four years. The Sino-American rivalry, the coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine have turned the world order upside down in the meantime. In this difficult context, the organization will simply have to prove its raison d’être. On the eve of this meeting, nearly 500 people demonstrated in Geneva in favor of food sovereignty.
What hundreds of demonstrators marched in Geneva on Saturday at the initiative of several farmers’ associations to denounce the impact they believe WTO trade agreements have on small agricultural producers, and their link with the current supply difficulties of food products, a consequence of the Ukrainian conflict.
« Today, the WTO is only a place to trade, gain market share and manage to drive up food prices, making it inaccessible to many people. Nicolas Girod, spokesman for the French agricultural union Confédération Paysanne, told AFP.
« No peasants, no food “, chanted the demonstrators, some of whom carried signs with the slogan “ There are potatoes that get lost ».
« The alternative is to develop real food sovereignty ” at local level, ” listening to people’s demands “continued the spokesperson, who added that he” don’t expect much of the WTO Ministerial Conference, which is to be held until Wednesday.
The restoration of global food security, shattered by the war between Ukraine and Russia, two of the world’s largest grain exporting countries, has been shattered, is one of the expectations surrounding the summit meeting of the WTO, which will bring together more than a hundred ministers on the shores of Lake Geneva
The WTO in search of a second wind
Director General of the WTO, the Nigerian, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, will not have it easy. She will have to carry out this meeting while certain countries refuse to negotiate with Moscow. However, the food crisis caused by the war in Ukraine is especially affecting poor countries. The lack of coordination on the part of the WTO would only fuel criticism of this organisation.
At the very top of the stack, the fishing folder. Faced with the overexploitation of fish stocks in the world, the WTO has been negotiating for more than twenty years rules aimed at prohibiting subsidies that threaten the sustainability of fishing.
Another file on the table, intellectual property rights on vaccines, drugs and equipment related to the pandemic. Poor countries’ access to these products must be accelerated.
The negotiations will also focus on the reform of the WTO, customs duties on electronic commerce, agricultural subsidies and even humanitarian aid. So many subjects that promise tough discussions without necessarily leading to agreements.
► Read also: Faced with crises, the WTO offers avenues for world trade