'India convinced that talks will be successful,' says Piyush Goyal at WTO meet in Switzerland

Geneva: Members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are engaged in a last-minute negotiations to bridge differences, which is expected to help the multi-lateral body head towards an agreement on issues like a temporary patent waiver to deal with COVID-19 pandemic, an official said on Thursday.

The official said that the WTO, which is meeting after a gap of about five years, also appears to be heading towards an agreement on issues like world food programmes and curbing harmful subsidies to promote sustainable fishing.

Briefing the media, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said that the entire leadership present here has worked constructively and India is convinced that this will turn out to be “one of the most successful” ministerials that the WTO has seen in a long time.

“We will take some solid decisions probably after seven years, subject to a few issues being sorted out in the next few minutes But nothing is done till everything is done,” he told reporters here.

The four-day ministerial conference that started on June 12 was extended by a day to give negotiators more time to iron out differences and strike the deal.

The official said that Intellectual Property (IP) waiver could be there for COVID-19 vaccines.

“Therapeutics and diagnostics will follow For the World Food Programme (WFP), members would not put restrictions on supplies but that would be subjected to domestic clearances; and on fisheries subsidies matter, focus is there on eliminating subsidies to stop illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities,” the official added.

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India and South Africa are key proponents for temporary waiver of IP on COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics to deal with the pandemic.

Talks are also going on over the issue of the continuation of the moratorium on customs duty levies on e-commerce trade. India has opposed the continuation of the moratorium and asked for a review of the matter.

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