The WTO reached a historic agreement on trade liberalization at the ministerial meeting in Bali. A revision of the final declaration of the summit, on Saturday, allowed Cuba to highlight that the delays in the transit of goods linked to the embargo suffered by the United States are illegal, thus seeing its political profile recognized. The green light from the island, at that point, gave substance to the liberalization program launched in 2001 in Doha, but remained, until now, a dead letter.
All ten chapters presented at the opening of the negotiations have been approved: these are rules relating to trade facilitation and agricultural issues such as general services, public storage of food raw materials for food security purposes, Tariffs, Quota Rates, Competition in exports . Furthermore, the chapter on Cotton and the postponement of the implementation of the liberalization of services were addressed. There is talk of opportunities for millions of jobs and a wealth produced estimated at around 1.000 billion.
The director general of the WTO Roberto Azevedo declared his enthusiasm, at the end of a long and close negotiation: "We have not only managed to keep this organization alive, but to demonstrate how it should work, in an energetic way, not in closed meetings , but with all members engaged in negotiation”. A lot of enthusiasm, however, let us not be deceived: most of the measures have been presented in their less defined form, in order not to create dissent, and on a technical level we will have to face a lot of work in Geneva.
Satisfied tooItalian premier Enrico Letta: "The agreement reached at the WTO ministerial conference in Bali is a historic result that strengthens the multilateral trading system, facilitates it, supports trade in less developed countries and marks important progress in terms of food security".
“For Europe and Italy – continues the Prime Minister in a note released by Palazzo Chigi – the trade facilitation measures are of particular importance, which will allow our companies, SMEs in the first place, to export more easily, in times faster and with less bureaucracy”. Letta also says he is sure "that our companies, starting with SMEs, will be able to fully grasp them, thanks to their dynamism and their capacity for innovation".
