Pression de l'Inde sur les Américains à l'OMC

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Le ministre indien du Commerce a expliqué, dès son arrivée à la réunion ministérielle de l'OMC, que son pays ne prévoit pas de conclure un accord tant que Washington bloque le mécanisme de règlement des différends de l'organisation.  "Nous devons d'abord achever ce qui a déjà été convenu .... - L'info en continu  https://buzzplus.fr/ Infos, news & actualités - L'information internationale en direct.

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00:00 The Indian Minister of Commerce explained, as soon as he arrived at the OMC's ministerial meeting,

00:05 that his country does not plan to conclude an agreement as long as Washington blocks the mechanism of regulation of the different organizations.

00:12 "We must first complete what has already been agreed upon.

00:16 It is only after this that we will be able to examine new questions in the future,"

00:20 said Piyush Goyal in an interview with AFP on Wednesday,

00:24 on the first day of his participation in the 13th World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference, which is held this week in Abu Dhabi.

00:32 "It is important that the first question we set is the appeal body and some countries prevent this," he said.

00:39 The Indian minister did not name the United States,

00:41 but the OMC's appeal body for the regulation system of trade disputes has been paralyzed since late 2019

00:47 following Washington's blockade of the renewal of judges,

00:50 a practice initiated under Barack Obama's administration and which Donald Trump and Joe Biden have pursued.

00:57 The United States blames the appeal body for over-interpreting the OMC's rules

01:01 and also believes that the judges' decisions should not go against the national security of the countries.

01:08 In 2022, the OMC's 164-member ministers are therefore convened to hold discussions

01:14 on the different rules for a fully operational system for 2024.

01:20 But the discussions have not advanced,

01:23 causing frustration in some countries within the OMC,

01:26 an organization where decisions are made by consensus.

01:30 "It should have been settled," said the Indian minister.

01:34 But other countries are claiming that the countries have until the end of the year to solve the problem.

01:39 Primordial importance

01:42 "I find it very regrettable that some countries do not allow the OMC to function fully,"

01:46 stressed Mr. Goyal, explaining that all decisions taken by the OMC since its creation are in the limbo

01:52 because there is no appeal body.

01:55 "Without an appeal body, if I have a problem with a nation, I can't do anything about it.

02:01 Even if I win a judgment, it has no value," he said,

02:05 estimating that "the entire functioning of the OMC is currently somewhat at a standstill."

02:10 The minister stressed that the restarting of the appeal body was

02:14 "not a red line, but a question of primordial importance."

02:19 When asked about the negotiations at the OMC on fishing and agriculture,

02:23 Mr. Goyal indicated that he hoped that countries

02:25 "could agree on the issues that some countries are unable to resolve."

02:30 "But these are new issues," he said.

02:34 "We should discuss and finalize them,

02:36 but we should first focus on the issues of the past," he repeated.

02:41 The minister also deplored that countries

02:43 "have not managed to agree with the OMC on a temporary derogation

02:47 of the rules of intellectual property for the production of diagnostic and treatment tools against COVID-19."

02:54 Despite the clashes within the pharmaceutical industry and the countries it hosts,

02:58 the OMC adopted in 2022 these measures for vaccines against COVID-19,

03:04 and India and South Africa, the spokespeople of other developing countries,

03:07 had asked that this derogation be extended to other products.

03:11 No effort was made to keep this promise,

03:14 the minister deplored, ensuring that the subject remained on the discussion table.

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