The World Trade Organisation (WTO) reached its first ever trade reform deal on Saturday to the cries of approval from nearly 160 ministers who gathered on the Indonesian island of Bali to decide on the make-or-break agreement that could add $1tn to the global economy
The approval came after Cuba dropped a last-gasp threat to veto the package of measures.
"For the first time in our history, the WTO has truly delivered," WTO chief Roberto Azevedo told exhausted ministers after the talks, which dragged into an extra day on the tropical resort island.
"This time the entire membership came together. We have put the 'world' back in World Trade Organisation," he said. "We're back in business...Bali is just the beginning."
The talks, which had opened on Tuesday, nearly came unstuck at the last minute when Cuba suddenly refused to accept a deal that would not help pry open the embargo of the Caribbean island, forcing negotiations to drag into Saturday morning.
Cuba later agreed on a compromise with the United States.
TRADE SCEPTICISM
There was however, scepticism on how much had really been achieved.
"Beyond papering a serious dispute on food security, precious little progress was made at Bali," said Simon Evenett, professor of international trade at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland. "Dealing with the fracas on food security sucked the oxygen out of the remaining talks."
The talks had begun under a cloud because of an insistence by India at the outset that it would only back an agreement if there was a compromise on food subsidies because of its massive program for stockpiling food to feed its poor.
India, which will holds its elections next year, won plaudits at home for taking a stand on behalf of the world's poor.
An eventual compromise was greeted with jubilation by Trade Minister Anand Sharma. While India had insisted on a permanent exemption from the WTO rules, the final text aimed to recommend a permanent solution within four years.
However, the agreement is a milestone for the 159 WTO members, marking the organisation's first global trade agreement since it was created in 1995.
The ministers had gathered with a clear warning that failure to reach agreement in Bali would turn the WTO into an irrelevance and trigger a rush towards regional and bilateral trade pacts.
It came almost 20 years to the day since a similar nail-biting conclusion to another marathon negotiation - the talks to seal the creation of the WTO itself, which were wrapped up in mid-December 1993. That was the last global trade deal.
The Bali meeting was also noticeable for its lack of anti-WTO protests compared to the street battles when ministers met in Seattle 14 years ago.
The Bali accord will help revive confidence in the WTO's ability to negotiate global trade deals, after it consistently failed to clinch agreement in the Doha round of talks that started in 2001 and proved hugely over-ambitious.
As the Doha round stuttered to a halt, momentum shifted away from global trade pacts in favour of regional deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership that the United States is negotiating with 11 other countries, and a similar agreement it is pursuing bilaterally with the European Union.
