Professor Michael Ewing-Chow (Head, Trade and Investment Law and Policy) and CIL Associate Junianto James Losari attended the 9th Bali WTO Ministerial Conference which took place in Bali on 3-7 December 2013, along with the side event “Bali Trade and Development Symposium” held by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD). The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono delivered his opening speech and officially declared the Conference open on 3 December 2013. During the conference, negotiations had been very intense with serious concern that a deal might not be struck after all.

In fact, the initial three-day Ministerial Conference (MC) had to be extended, with the closing plenary scheduled for the afternoon of 6 December postponed to the afternoon of 7 December 2013. Fortunately, the delegations from 159 members (Yemen acceded to the WTO Member during this MC, and will be the 160th member) managed to agree on a Bali package, despite tough positions of India and Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Venezuela on agricultural issues and discrimination in the form of trade embargoes on goods in transit respectively.

The Bali package contains agreements on issues such as trade facilitation, food security, and special provisions for Least-Developed Countries (LDCs). With the deal, members can expect simplified customs rules and more efficient cross-border flows of trade that will cut red tape and speed up port clearances; rules on public stockholding for food security purposes, import quotas on agricultural products, export competitions issues; greater transparency on trade-related aspects of cotton, in relation to LDCs; and special rules that favor LDCs.

In the Closing Plenary, the Director General (DG) of the WTO Roberto Azevêdo noted that there are remaining issues that need to be resolved. However, with this progress, he expressed his confidence that the WTO would be able to move forward on the other areas of the work, which had been stalled for so long. The adoption of the Bali Package is historical as the WTO has truly delivered, and it is the first time that the WTO reached a deal since the Doha Rounds started, thus breaking the impasse of the Rounds. Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia who acted as the Chairman of the MC, Gita Wirjawan also voiced the same positive attitude towards the progress. He closed the session by restating a quote from a famous phrase by Nelson Mandela as mentioned previously by DG Azevêdo, “it always seems impossible, until it’s done”.