WTO takes aim at export controls in effort to stem rising food prices

World Trade Organization director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has urged governments to end export restrictions on food to help alleviate the growing hunger caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At the start of the body’s first ministerial meeting in five years, Okonjo-Iweala said she hoped nations would agree to a food security declaration that would limit the use of “things like export restrictions and prohibitions” which “can exacerbate the issue”.

A ban on exports by big food producers raised prices for importers during the 2008-09 food crisis, she noted, adding: “Our members are trying to think about how they would try to restrain themselves from taking these kinds of actions. This is a very important contribution they can make to keeping the prices of food products from rising.”

At least 30 countries have imposed such controls, according to the IMF. Ukraine was among the world’s biggest exporters of wheat, maize and sunflower oil, but most of the crop is stranded in warehouses after a Russian blockade of its ports.

The UN is leading talks aimed at securing safe passage for cargo ships carrying the grain.

Okonjo-Iweala said she also hoped that countries would agree there should be no limits on sales to the World Food Programme, the UN division concerned with hunger and food security.

The WFP said this month that 750,000 people faced hunger at present, with an “‘all-time high” of 49mn people in 46 countries at risk of succumbing to famine or famine-like conditions.

Fifty-six ministers, including those from the EU, Singapore and Ecuador, met in Geneva ahead of Monday’s opening of the MC12, the 12th ministerial conference in WTO history, and agreed a statement of support for Ukraine. They pledged to help it export.

The MC12 has been postponed twice due to Covid-19. Okonjo-Iweala admitted there were still differences between the 164 members on the five areas the meeting hoped to decide on. The WTO works on consensus, so any one country can block a deal.

She also urged countries to accept compromises. “This is a negotiating forum. It has become a diktat forum. One side says I want this and the other says I want that. There is no negotiation.”

Talks on the five topics on which the meeting hopes to clinch deals are fraught, according to Geneva officials.

India, South Africa and Indonesia have yet to agree to continue a moratorium on customs duties for digital goods, which expires this month. If they do not, countries would be able to tax cross-border services such as films, social media messages and banking transactions.

Countries are also divided over how to change WTO intellectual property protections to allow poorer countries to make cheap generic versions of Covid vaccines. There is growing consensus to allow governments to issue compulsory licences to make drugs domestically, with some compensation for rights holders.

Ministers cannot yet even agree on parameters for future talks on reducing agricultural subsidies.

An attempt to eliminate the most harmful fishing subsidies appears closer, but some developing countries with big fleets such as India and China want certain exemptions from controls.

Finally, Okonjo-Iweala hopes ministers will set up a group on WTO reform. It has not brokered a global trade deal since it was founded in 1995 and is contending with complicated areas such as forced labour and sustainable development.

She said ministers needed to find “political will” to produce concrete results by the end of the meeting on Wednesday. “Let us see if we can get one or two deliverables. I am cautiously optimistic we can.”