South Africa has expressed its disappointment over a failure by members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to reach agreement on a package of global trade deals ahead of the ninth Ministerial Conference to be held in Bali, Indonesia, in December.

WTO director-general Roberto Azevêdo on Tuesday said the last general council meeting prior to the Bali conference had seen progress being made; however, no agreements had been finalised.

“We are not going to Bali with a set of finalised documents that could allow the Ministers to announce to the world a set of multilaterally agreed outcomes – the first since the WTO was created. At this point in time, we cannot tell the world that we've delivered.

“And I will inform the Ministers that we have failed to find convergence. I will tell them that we came truly close to a successful outcome, but that, once more, the finish line eluded us,” he stated.

Azevêdo further warned that failure to reach agreement in Bali would have “grave consequences” for the multilateral trading system.

“We will fail not only the WTO and multilateralism. We will also fail our constituencies at large, the business community and, above all, the most vulnerable among us.

“What we have on the table for trade facilitation would deliver jobs and opportunities in times of unemployment and slow growth. It would also deliver technical assistance and capacity building for the better integration of developing and least developed countries into global trade flows,” he added.

The director-general further emphasised that member countries’ failure to reach agreement at the general council meeting was not the result of a North–South divide, nor was it owing to a lack of time.

Rather, it was the result of specific localised difficulties.

Azevêdo stressed that political will was needed for an agreement to be reached.

“You will need to talk to each other over the next few days, to figure out a way forward. I will be consulting members and I will do everything I can to facilitate discussions. But it is up to you to find the solution that we all want to see,” he said.

Meanwhile, South African Ambassador to the WTO Faizel Ismail criticised the “all or nothing” approach adopted by some members during the meeting.

“The WTO was and continues to be in crisis – due to the prolonged impasse in the Doha round. The main reason for this is, in our view, the high and unrealistic demands of some members. This crisis is now exacerbated by a shift of the resources and energy of the largest and richest members towards transcontinental and mega-bilaterals.

“An ‘all or nothing’ approach was another attempt to shift the focus of attention from the needs and interests of the poorest members towards that of narrow business interests,” he said.

However, he added that the majority of members were willing to do what was needed to rebuild support in the rich countries for multilateralism and the Doha round.