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After nearly hitting a deadlock over fisheries subsidies, the 164 member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) forged a bouquet of deals in the wee hours of Friday in Geneva by significantly lowering their ambitions.

The four-day conference, which kicked off on Sunday, was scheduled to end on June 15. However, it was extended by two more days to push trade ministers to hammer out a deal to maintain a sense of purpose at a multilateral organisation that is fighting for its relevance.

The deal included patent waiver to fight the pandemic, limited only to production and exports of vaccines that India had earlier termed as “too late in the day as the pandemic has run its initial course”. India’s demand to allow it to export food grain from its public stockholding could also not be agreed upon. On fisheries, though millions of Indian fishermen will not face any cut in state subsidies, countries were able to agree to only a partial deal to cut down illegal unreported, unregulated (IUU) especially by China and countries of the European Union.

India also climbed down from its demand to end

moratorium on customs duty on electronic transmission, which anyway was considered as a bargaining tool. At the end of the day, India was happy that it won’t have to take fresh disciplines in any sector even as a deal could be agreed up on.

ALSO READ: WTO's vaccine patent waiver may have little impact on ground now: Industry

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said perhaps this was the first ministerial where India set the agenda. “We were on the front foot. We were telling other countries what need to be done.”

The outcome of the WTO is not only emblematic of the importance of a multilateral trading system but is also seen as an image makeover effort by India to be seen as a deal maker than a deal breaker.

Biswajit Dhar, professor of economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University said countries have deliberately lowered their ambitions to at least get something on the table. “If you have high ambitions and fail, then it would have sent a signal that WTO can’t take decisions,” he added.

However, the WTO’s failure to include diagnostics and therapeutics in the patent waiver deal along with vaccines drew strongest criticism. Max Lawson, Co-Chair of the People’s Vaccine Alliance and Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam said this is absolutely not the broad intellectual property waiver the world desperately needs to ensure access to vaccines and treatments for everyone, everywhere. “This so-called compromise largely reiterates developing countries’ existing rights to override patents in certain circumstances. And it tries to restrict even that limited right to countries which do not already have capacity to produce COVID-19 vaccines. Put simply, it is a technocratic fudge aimed at saving reputations, not lives,” he added.

ALSO READ: Goyal says India's 'firm stamp' visible in outcome of every WTO meeting

In October 2020, India and South Africa and 63 co-sponsors of the waiver proposal had made the TRIPS waiver proposal to help middle and low income nations get access to Covid-19 vaccines and drugs. However, the discussions reached a deadlock in the TRIPS Council. The final agreement fell short of the original proposal.

The global trade body was also able to build a consensus on the agreement on a 21-year old issue that aims to eliminate subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and promote sustainable fishing. The final agreement removed the contentious clause, which proposed a ban on overfishing subsidies within seven years. India had called for a ban on subsidies in 25 years for countries fishing in areas beyond their exclusive economic zones.

According to the final deal, there will be checks on illegal unreported, unregulated fishing in India’s waters and elsewhere. Besides, no subsidies will be provided for fishing in areas outside exclusive economic zones.

The outcome document of the ministerial committed to work towards necessary reform of the WTO while reaffirming the foundational principles of the WTO and promised to revive the dispute settlement body in next two years.

Outcome of WTO MC12

E-commerce

What India wanted

No extension of customs duty moratorium on electronics transmissions

What it got

18-month extension of e-commerce moratorium

Review of scope, definition, and impact of moratoriumReview of scope, definition, and impact of moratorium

Agriculture, food security

What India wanted

Permanent solution to public stockholding for food security purposes

No exemptions for food purchases by WFP from export restrictions

Permission for exports of food grains from public stocks on govt-to-govt basis

What it got

No export restrictions on WFP purchases. Internal food security concerns to take precedence

Solution to public stockholding again deferred to next ministerial

TRIPS waiver

What India wanted

IP waiver for vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics

What it got

TRIPS waiver only on vaccine with exports up to five years

Decision on diagnostics and therapeutics after six months

Fisheries

What India wanted

Exemption from subsidy cuts for developing countries fishing within EEZs

25-year ban on subsidies for countries fishing in areas beyond their EEZs

What India got

No restriction on subsidies for fishing within EEZs

No subsidies for fishing in areas outside EEZs

Check on illegal unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing by developed countries and China

The Google Doodle on June 18 marked pioneering Romanian physicist Ștefania Mărăcineanu’s birth anniversary. She was a key figure in the discovery and study of radioactivity.

Google’s Doodle was nod to her study of polonium -- a radioactive element discovered by Polish-French physicist Marie Curie.

Mărăcineanu was born in Bucharest in 1882. Not much is known about her childhood.

She grew up to study physical and chemical science at the University of Bucharest. After graduating in 1910, she began teaching at the same school she had attended – the Central School for Girls.

While teaching at the school, Mărăcineanu was granted a scholarship by the Romanian Ministry of Science. She used that to pursue graduate research at the Radium Institute in Paris.

The institute was being helmed by Marie Curie and quickly emerging as global centre for the study of radioactivity. There, Mărăcineanu began her PhD thesis on polonium.

Mărăcineanu’s research at the Radium Institute shed light on artificial radioactivity for the first time. In 1935, when Marie Curie’s daughter Irène Curie and her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie received a joint Nobel prize for discovering artificial radioactivity, Mărăcineanu demanded that her role be recognized too.

The Academy of Sciences of Romania recognised her work in 1936, appointing her as director of research. But she never attained global fame.

Mărăcineanu is remembered for founding Romania’ first laboratory for the study of Radioactivity. After thar, she spent her time researching artificial rain and study the link between earthquakes and rainfall.

Mărăcineanu became the first scientist to discover that before an earthquake, there was significant increase of radioactivity in the epicenter.

The physicist died in 1944. A significant part of her career -- her laboratory at the Radium Institute -- is to this date preserved at the Curie Museum in Paris.

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The rupee pared initial gains to settle just 1 paisa higher at 78.09 (provisional) against the US dollar on Friday amid a muted trend in domestic equities and unabated foreign capital outflows. A strong dollar overseas and higher crude prices also kept the domestic unit under pressure, forex dealers said.

At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened strong at 78.03 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 78.02 and a low of 78.09. It finally ended at 78.09, registering a gain of 1 paisa over its previous close of 78.10.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, climbed 0.71 per cent to 104.37. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, spurted 0.96 per cent to USD 120.96 per barrel.

On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 135.37 points or 0.26 per cent lower at 51,360.42, while the broader NSE Nifty fell 67.10 points or 0.44 per cent to 15,293.50. Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Thursday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 3,257.65 crore, as per exchange data. 

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on June 17  said that India has achieved spectacular success at World Trade Organization (WTO)'s  12th ministerial conference (MC12) in in Geneva, Switzerland. Goyal had led India's delegation to the four-day global summit which was extended for two additional days after differences among member nations on key issues, led to intense negotiations.

"India is 100% satisfied with the outcome of WTO's MC12 conference. India was successful in ensuring the livelihood of its farmers and fishermen," Goyal said. He further added that India was successful in convincing all nations to ensure a patent waiver for the manufacturing of Covid vaccines.

Goyal was speaking to the press after the once-in-two-year mega meeting of trade ministers from all 162 WTO member nations concluded in the early hours of Friday.

MC12 finally ended with deals on a global intellectual property rights (IPR) waiver for Covid vaccines and fishing subsidies to protect ocean resources. Moneycontrol had reported on Thursday that both deals were expected to finally pass despite intense debate.

While India had pushed for more comprehensive measures in these areas, as well as for talks on agriculture, the final outcome has been backed by New Delhi as promising.

Everyone had written off this conference as a failed endeavour when it had begun. There had no decision, not even an outcome document at WTO since 2015. There were a lot of arguments against multilateralism and that globalization has no promise. This conference has reestablished the position of multilateral institutions by deciding on issues which were pending for decades," Goyal stressed.

Big wins

"The agreement on fisheries is currently limited to illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing. The discussion on extending this to all government subsidies will take place going forward. Currently, there are no restrictions on government subsidies," Goyal said.

Instead, the WTO has cognizance of India's demand that nations that have consistently supported illegal deepsea fishing be regulated, he added.

Goyal also said that there is no negative outcome for India's agriculture sector. India's public stockholding program for foodgrains will also continue unhindered, he added. On the issue of food security, Goyal said talks have progressed to a certain degree.

A proposed global declaration to not curb foodgrain exports to the World Food Programme (WFP), which seeks to fight hunger in places hit by conflicts, disasters, and climate change, passed in a modified form after being blocked by India.

Reduced scope

"The WTO has also decided to craft a significant response to the pandemic," Goyal said referring to the patent waiver for Covid vaccines. MC12 has also finally approved a temporary suspension of certain parts of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Suspending parts of the TRIPS agreement would allow countries to overcome the legal challenges posed by patents to ensure the timely provisioning of affordable medical products. However, the deal will only to cover vaccines and not related items.

While India had consistently pushed for keeping all therapeutics and diagnostic technologies part of the deal, the final deal will help developing and poor nations to access much needed vaccines Goyal said. "The WTO has approved the solution that came out of consistent discussions between India, South Africa, United States and European Union on the issue," he said.

Going forward

The WTO has also decided to extend yet again the moratorium on taxation on e-commerce transactions.

The WTO members had agreed to not impose customs duties on electronic transmissions since 1998 and the moratorium has been periodically extended at successive ministerial conferences. However, India has increasingly become a strict opponent of the move and initially blocked the continuation of the moratorium at MC12.

New Delhi had stressed that it is willing to tax electronic transactions in the near future, using Section 9(1)(i) of the Income Tax Act. It also wants to retain the policy space to grant preferential treatment of digital products created within India.

"The moratorium was extended but with a deadline. It was decided that there has to be clarity on this issue by March 2024," Goyal argued. The next ministerial conference (MC13) is set to be held then.

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India's merchandise exports in May rose by 20.55 per cent to USD 38.94 billion, while the trade deficit ballooned to a record USD 24.29 billion, according to the government data released on Wednesday.

Imports during May 2022 grew by 62.83 per cent to USD 63.22 billion, the data showed.

The trade deficit stood at USD 6.53 billion in the same month last year.

Cumulative exports in April-May 2022-23 rose by about 25 per cent to USD 78.72 billion.

Imports in April-May 2022-23 increased 45.42 per cent to USD 123.41 billion.

The trade deficit during the first two months of this fiscal widened to USD 44.69 billion against USD 21.82 billion in the year-ago period.

Petroleum and crude oil imports during May 2022 surged 102.72 per cent to USD 19.2 billion.

Coal, coke and briquettes imports jumped to USD 5.5 billion against USD 2 billion in May 2021.

Gold imports increased to USD 6 billion during the month under review from USD 677 million in May 2021.

Engineering goods exports in May increased by 12.65 per cent to USD 9.7 billion, while petroleum products exports grew by 60.87 per cent to USD 8.54 billion.

Gems and jewellery exports stood at USD 3.22 billion in May compared to USD 2.96 billion in the same month last year.

Exports of chemicals rose 17.35 per cent to USD 2.5 billion in May.

Similarly, shipments of pharma and ready-made garments of all textiles grew by 10.28 per cent and 27.85 per cent to USD 2 billion and USD 1.41 billion, respectively.

Export sectors that recorded negative growth in May include iron ore, cashew, handicrafts, plastics, carpet and spices.

The commerce ministry said the estimated value of services import for May is USD 14.43 billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 45.01 per cent compared to USD 9.95 billion in the same month last year.

"The estimated value of services imports for April-May 2022 is USD 28.48 billion exhibiting a positive growth of 45.52 per cent vis-a-vis April-May 2021 (USD 19.57 billion)," it added.

Also Read:- Oil prices fall as expected U.S. interest rate hike looms

Oil prices fell on Wednesday on concerns about fuel demand and global economic growth before an expected big hike in interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Brent crude futures for August were down $1.27, or 1%, at $119.90 a barrel as of 1001 GMT, in volatile trading.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for July fell $1.44, or 1.2%, to $117.49 a barrel.

"Oil markets are seeing uncertainty over what central banks do next and how that impacts oil demand," said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.

Surging inflation has led investors and oil traders to brace for a big move by the Fed this week – a 75-basis-point increase, which would be the largest U.S. interest rate hike in 28 years.