The International Chamber of Commerce has expressed deep concern that the deadline to implement the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) has been missed. Under the terms of the WTO’s Bali deal—agreed to by all WTO members last December— a “legal protocol” to operationalize the TFA was due to be agreed today by the WTO membership. This deadline has now been missed due to a standoff over the negotiation of a separate agreement on national food security programmes. Commenting on the news, ICC Secretary General John Danilovich said: “There’s huge frustration that a deal with the potential to inject a US$1 trillion stimulus into the global economy has been blocked by a diplomatic standoff in Geneva. “The deal agreed in Bali last December matters to us all.
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