World Trade Organisation

About the WTO

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) founded in 1995 aims to increase international trade in goods, services and agriculture through multilateral negotiations open to all countries. It also serves to enforce adherence to WTO agreements through its dispute resolution and appeals process. AFTINET supports the concept of a  multilateral system open to all countries, with enforceable rules that includes developing countries.

But in practice   the WTO has often failed  to deliver meaningful outcomes for poorer countries.  Negotiations have been dominated by the most powerful players which have not responded to developing country concerns. The WTO consensus system of decision-making means these countries can block proposals even if the majority  of WTO members support them. This  has resulted in  stalled negotiations and reduced  hopes for a fair multilateral trade system.

From 1995 the WTO had agreements on goods, services, agriculture, intellectual property, and other issues. But over the last decade the WTO has stalled on new agreements, with only one agreement reached between all its members: the 2013 “Bali Package” on trade facilitation, which had a tiny scope compared with previous meetings and overall WTO objectives. The WTO has focussed instead on negotiating smaller  "plurilateral" agreements involving fewer, mostly industrialised, countries. 

The result of the WTO’s shortcomings has been an increasing number of bilateral and regional free trade agreements being negotiated outside the WTO framework. These include the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)

These deals have generally left out the poorest countries and pushed a more “ambitious” corporate agenda, including chapters which are not about traditional trade issues at all – such as increased investor rights, greater restrictions on government regulation and stronger monopolies on patents (including medicines) and copyright which are actually the opposite of “free trade”.

During the COVID pandemic in 202-2022, over 100 mostly developing countries in the WTO supported a temporary waiver on WTO rules for 20-year monopolies on medicines which meant the pharmaceutical companies sold most vaccines at high prices to rich countries, leaving very low vaccination rates in low-income countries, and even less access to treatments and tests. The waiver would have enabled increased global production at lower prices.  Rich countries, lobbied by their pharmaceutical companies,  blocked the waiver for 20 months until June 2022, when a small change was made to patent rules for vaccines only. As of February 2023, there is still no decision on treatments and tests.  This delay cost millions of lives.

In general, AFTINET advocates for multilateral trade negotiations involving 164 WTO members over bilateral and regional negotiations. The WTO needs fundamental change to a fairer multilateral system that would give developing countries more negotiating power and be based on commitments to human rights, labour rights and environmental sustainability. Nearly all governments agreed to these principles through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, but they have not been integrated into WTO goals or practice. A blueprint for achieving these goals can be found in "A New Multilateralism for Shared Prosperity: Geneva Principles for a Green New Deal" published by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

US agenda revealed at IPEF talks in Bali

March 28, 2023: The summaries of US inputs at the recent Bali round of negotiations for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) reveal US pressure of the other 13 states to adopt US standards. At the same time the US Congress is yet to determine the IPEF agenda on the “digital economy”.

IPEF includes the US, Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Fiji and Vietnam.

Government urged to support equitable global access to medicines at WHO Pandemic Treaty meeting

Media Release  February 27, 2023

World Health Organisation (WHO) member governments will meet in Geneva this evening AEDT to start debating a draft Pandemic Treaty intended to learn from the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and develop better strategies for future pandemics, to be completed in 2024.

Leading public health, fair trade, church, human rights and aid and development organisations have written to the Ministers responsible for Health, Foreign Affairs and Trade asking them not to repeat the “catastrophic moral failure” of inequitable global access to COVID vaccines, treatments and tests. The letter is attached. Quotes from organisation leaders are below.

WHO draft pandemic treaty proposes monopoly waivers, and other measures for equitable access to medicines

February 8, 2023: The World Health Organization (WHO)’s first or ‘zero-draft’ for a treaty on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response would commit Member States to support temporary waivers of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules for 20-year monopolies on pandemic related products. This would enable developing countries to scale up manufacturing of cheaper products, and increase the availability of affordable pandemic-related products.

Why the WTO TRIPS Council must extend patents waiver to COVID-19 tests and treatments

December 6, 2022: Today the World Trade Organisation Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Council (WTO TRIPS Council) is meeting in Geneva to discuss the proposal from developing countries to extend the June WTO decision to waive some patent rights for COVID vaccines to cover COVID treatments and tests. This would expand access to treatments and tests to millions of people in low-income countries.

Associate Professor Deborah Gleeson and colleagues presented the evidence for expanding the waiver in this Conversation article: https://theconversation.com/intellectual-property-waiver-for-covid-vaccines-should-be-expanded-to-include-treatments-and-tests-194918

Health experts warn global COVID vaccine inequity persists as Australia has surplus of millions

July 18, 2022: The ABC reports that over the last two years, the  Federal government purchased 255 million vaccines from four pharmaceutical companies, with 60 million administered around the country, and roughly 40 million doses donated around the Indo-Pacific region. Even with the expected increased uptake of third and fourth doses over winter, Australia may have a surplus of over 100 million doses, some of which are due to expire.

What impact will the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference have on people and the planet?

June 30, 2022: Earlier this month, trade ministers from 164 member states of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) came together at the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) to negotiate new rules to govern a number of important areas of trade. 

What were the results of the MC12, and what impact will it have on people, the planet, and sustainable development? Here’s what you need to know.

Pages