WTO agrees rich countries to end export subsidies to help poor nations

Negotiators at the World Trade Organisation’s ministerial conference in Nairobi, Kenya, agreed to end direct export subsidies on farm produce even as 14-year-old talks on trade development remain unresolved.

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.