The Geneva-based WTO, which has invited Liberia and Afghanistan to become its 163rd and 164th members, has been trying and largely failing to agree on a worldwide package of trade reforms since a meeting in Doha in 2001 hatched an ambitious plan for knocking down trade barriers.
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“That all unfinished pillars of DDA shall be carried forward was also ensured”.
The 10th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization concluded in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Saturday.
Those products include sugar, beef, pork, lamb, dairy, wheat, rice, wine, fruit, vegetables, processed foods and cotton.
India and Venezuela were, however, disappointed that the ministerial statement issued did not expressly reaffirm the Doha Development Agenda.
It would turn out that the developed nations, which were demanding for the termination of the Doha programme, were handed a significant defeat in the marathon negotiations where trade ministers from around the world agreed to carry on with the Doha Development Agenda, a position that Kenya was in favour of.
Members said the Nairobi deal had drawn a line under years of stalemate over the direction of global trade negotiations.
The government’s official delegation, led by Commerce Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, which represented India at the Nairobi, has returned empty-handed, Deputy leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha and former Commerce Minister, Anand Sharma, said.
“India blocking WTO?! Disagree…”
Kenya’s Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said she was confident that the Nairobi talks had actually “strengthened” the body over the week.
JUBILANT Australian farmers say they have been fighting for more than three decades for a global agreement struck today to scrap all agricultural export subsidies.
WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo has hailed the deal as the “most significant outcome on agriculture” in the organisation’s 20-year history.
“There continue to be a range of views about the future of the Doha Development Round, but there is a strong commitment on the part of all WTO members to advance negotiations on the remaining Doha issues, including agriculture. The legally-binding decision would eliminate these subsidies”.
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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.
