The World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council has overcome a months-long standoff on the issue of a permanent solution for public stockholding for food security purposes that has held up the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA)—the first multilateral trade agreement to come out of the WTO since its creation in 1995. 

Adopted at the Dec. 9, 2013, Bali Ministerial Conference, TFA will reduce transaction costs at the borders by 10 to 15 percent by harmonizing border procedures and reducing bureaucratic red tape, with an  estimated benefit to the global economy of up to $1 trillion per year and 21 million jobs. The compromise clears the path for TFA to be implemented and come into force following formal ratification by WTO members.

The General Council agreement clarifies that a “peace clause”—which allows developing countries to shield certain food stockholding programs from a WTO challenge for breaching subsidy limits—will stay in place until WTO members reach a permanent solution on how such programs should be treated under trade rules.

It also states that WTO members shall make all efforts to negotiate a permanent solution by Dec. 31, 2015, which is in advance of the original target date of the 11th Ministerial Conference in 2017. If no solution is reached by this new target date, the peace clause will simply remain in place and in effect until negotiations do conclude and a permanent solution is adopted.

The compromise also included a commitment of reaching a post-Bali work program to implement the remaining Bali decisions that have yet to be converted to legally binding outcomes. The General Council statement delays until July 2015 the deadline for WTO members to produce a work program to conclude the long-stalled Doha Development Agenda round, a pushback of about seven months from the current deadline of early December.