On December 6, 2013, the World Trade Organization (WTO) issued a press release announcing that a revised draft of the “Bali Package” was distributed to ministers attending the WTO Bali Ministerial Conference, aimed to provide developing countries with further opportunities in regards to food security, trade and overall development.
According to the release, the revised texts are “the product of weeks of intensive negotiations in Geneva before the Ministerial Conference. They were further refined after round-the-clock consultations at the conference and are now being presented to ministers from the full membership to consider. Under WTO rules, a consensus is required for the decisions to be adopted.”
The draft covers the following topics:
- Trade facilitation
- Streamlining customs and port procedures
- Agriculture
- Tariff quota administration
- Export subsidies
- Developing countries’ public stockholding of food for food security
- Cotton
- Improving market access for cotton products and provide development assistance
- Development
- Duty-free, quota-free access for least developed countries
- Simplified preferential rules of origin for least developed countries
- A “services waiver”, allowing least developed countries preferential access to richer countries’ services markets
- A “monitoring mechanism”, monitoring special treatment given to developing countries
The press release can be accessed here
