US plays dealbreaker: WTO Argentina meet ends without legally binding declaration

BUENOS AIRES: The eleventh ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ended without any declaration or a legally binding outcome as the US played a dealbreaker by not reaffirming the very tenets of multilateralism.

The four day summit wrapped up on Wednesday evening with the chair’s statement and work programmes on issues like fisheries subsidies and e-commerce.

Work programmes are the guiding principles for an issue to move forward by the next ministerial while a ministerial declaration is a text with legal sanctity. In case a declaration is not there, it’s replaced by the chair’s statement which sums up the negotiations and the road ahead. The chair’s summary is not legally binding.


This is the second time after the Geneva ministerial of 2011 when the WTO failed to deliver a legal binding outcome at a ministerial conference.

The expectations of an outcome from this ministerial had been low with the Trump administration's non-engagement on several multilateral trade issues and the US blocking the appointment of judges in the appellate body of the organisation.

It got reaffirmed during the course of the summit when Assistant United States Trade Representative (USTR) Sharon Bomer Lauritsen said it is a mandate from the US administration to not have any outcome on agriculture.