Share

NZ Farmers set to benefit from WTO agreement

According to the Nairobi Declaration approved at the conference developed members shall immediately eliminate their scheduled export subsidies while the developing country members shall do so by 2018.

Advertisement

Developing members will keep the flexibility to cover marketing and transport costs for agriculture exports until the end of 2023, and the poorest and food-importing countries have additional time to cut export subsidies.

Trade Minister Todd McClay said the most important outcome for us is the fact WTO members won’t be able to subsidise their agricultural exports anymore.

“The decision you have taken today on export competition is truly extraordinary”, WTO chief Roberto Azevedo said at the closing session in Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

The four-day Nairobi conference was extended by a final non-stop 24-hour negotiation between the major trading powers, who agreed on a package that included phasing out agricultural export subsidies and restricting agricultural export credits. This marks a significant departure from the fundamental WTO principle of consensus-based decision making.

Successive New Zealand governments have been working to remove subsidies in New Zealand’s export markets.

Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said the “unexpected” agreement to scrap the subsidies was a “remarkable and historic” win for Australian farmers. “So this deal has significant meanings for free agriculture trade, and, particularly, for farmers’ income and the growth of agriculture in developing countries”.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said the results in Nairobi this week will allow the conversation to focus on unresolved issues within the Doha framework while turning to new policy areas. Emerging economies, in addition, must desist from giving various logistics support that can give their farm products an edge in the export market.

Those products include sugar, beef, pork, lamb, dairy, wheat, rice, wine, fruit, vegetables, processed foods and cotton.

“Without the Doha framework and an explicit reaffirmation of the Doha Development Agenda, developing countries will never be in a position again in the WTO to negotiate the agenda to their benefit”, pointed out Biraj Patnaik from the Right to Food campaign.

Advertisement

Foreign Affairs Minister Amina Mohamed, who had described the WTO’s negotiating function as broken at the summit’s opening, said she was confident that the Nairobi talks had actually “strengthened” the body over the week.

Developed nations trying to sidetrack WTO Doha Round Sitharaman