India softens stance to hammer out a "no harm" trade deal at WTO meet

Piyush Goyal said perhaps this was the first ministerial where India set the agenda. "We were on the front foot. We were telling other countries what needs to be done"

After nearly hitting a deadlock over fisheries subsidies, the 164 member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) forged a bouquet of deals in the wee hours of Friday in Geneva by significantly lowering their ambitions.

The four-day conference, which kicked off on Sunday, was scheduled to end on June 15. However, it was extended by two more days to push trade ministers to hammer out a deal to maintain a sense of purpose at a multilateral organisation that is fighting for its relevance.

The deal included patent waiver to fight the pandemic, limited only to production and exports of