MC13 outcomes

The 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) of the World Trade Organization was held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, from 26 February to 2 March 2024 (extended by one day). It was chaired by UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, with Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala presiding over the secretariat. The conference produced a mixed set of results, often described by delegates as modest rather than transformative.

Key outcomes included:

• Abu Dhabi Ministerial Declaration, reaffirming the centrality of the rules-based multilateral trading system and committing members to continue reform work.
• Accessions of Comoros and Timor-Leste as the WTO's 165th and 166th members (pending domestic ratification).
• A commitment to have a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all Members by 2024, continuing the reform process launched at MC12, though the Appellate Body impasse was not resolved.
• Extension of the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions until MC14 or 31 March 2026, whichever is earlier — a contested decision opposed by India, South Africa, and Indonesia in negotiations.
• Extension of the TRIPS non-violation and situation complaints moratorium.
• A work programme on small economies and renewed attention to least-developed country (LDC) graduation transitions.

Notable failures included the inability to conclude the second wave of the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement (covering overcapacity and overfishing), blocked principally by India's demands on special and differential treatment; no breakthrough on agriculture, including public stockholding for food security; and no agreement on extending the e-commerce Joint Statement Initiative into the formal WTO framework, though a plurilateral text was stabilised among participating members.

MC13 illustrated the growing difficulty of consensus-based decision-making among the WTO's full membership, and pushed several substantive issues to MC14, scheduled for Cameroon in 2026.