What the developing countries were fighting for at WTO's Abu Dhabi session | In Focus podcast
The 164 member world trade organisation holds what it calls a Ministerial Conference \u2013 a once in two years meeting of all its member countries to discuss, negotiate and address global trade rules. WTO\u2019s thirteenth ministerial conference, or MC13 \u2013 took place in Abu Dhabi in late February this year, but it failed to make headway on key agenda items. Such failures in negotiations have come to plague the WTO lately. Yet, despite this, failed outcomes are often touted as major victories by member counties. Like in India\u2019s case, where Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal claimed a win for the country\u2019s farmers, when India\u2019s position on demanding sovereignty over public stock holding of food, and providing largely artesanal fishing nations, subsidies for fisheries failed to reach consensus. \nTwo more demands of developing countries \u2013 the first \u2013 lifting the moratorium on levying customs duty on e-commerce, and second, a reconstitution of the WTO\u2019s dispute settlement appellate body, remained unresolved as well. And yet, why are these key wins for developing nations? \n\n \nGuest: Ranja Sengupta from the global non-profit \u2013 Third World Network\nHost: Kunal Shankar, The Hindu\u2019s Deputy Business Editor\nEdited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.