WTO agrees rich countries to end export subsidies to help poor nations
Developed countries will immediately eliminate any export-subsidy entitlements while developing nations must end direct support by the end of 2018, according to a ministerial declaration accepted in the Kenyan capital.
“The decision you have taken on export competition is truly extraordinary,” WTO director general Roberto Azevedo said at the conference.
“It is the WTO’s most significant outcome on agriculture.”
The declaration gives developing countries the right to use a special safeguard mechanism that allows them to raise tariffs temporarily to deal with a surge in imports or falling prices.
It will also make it easier for so-called least- developed countries to benefit from preferential market access for their goods.
“Our work to secure a global ban on export subsidies will help level the playing field for American farmers and ranchers,” US trade representative Michael Froman said in a statement.
“The WTO’s actions in this area will put an end to some of the most trade-distorting subsidies in existence.”
There was no consensus in the final declaration on the future of the Doha talks, named after the Qatari capital in which they started in 2001 with the aim of adding billions of euro to global trade by stimulating cross-border commerce.
"Negotiations on the trade-development talks have been stuck since 2009 because of differences between wealthy and poor nations, chiefly over subsidised farming in the developed world.
“We recognise that many members reaffirm the Doha development agenda, and the declarations and decisions adopted at Doha and at the ministerial conferences held since then, and reaffirm their full commitment to conclude the DDA on that basis,” the ministerial declaration said.
“Other members do not reaffirm the Doha mandates, as they believe new approaches are necessary to achieve meaningful outcomes in multilateral negotiations.”
Agricultural subsidies in the rich world have been a key stumbling block in trade talks over 15 years.
Leaders agreed to end cotton subsidies in developed countries immediately and in developing countries by the start of 2017.
African producers threatened to open a case under WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism by January, if rich nations don’t significantly reduce or eliminate trade-distorting support to their farmers.
The outcome is “better than I expected, it does something for cotton, it does something for export competition,” said Andrew Crosby, managing director for operations and strategy at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, said.
