“This is a great achievement, something successive governments and generations of New Zealand trade negotiators have fought long and hard to achieve, and a great way for Minister McClay to kick off his new role” said DCANZ Chairman, Malcolm Bailey.
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Fonterra welcomes the historic breakthrough at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Nairobi with the agreement to eliminate all agricultural export subsidies.
Developing countries’ major concerns at the meeting revolved around agricultural subsidies, market access, intellectual property and trade in services. “Most of the commitments given by the WTO to us are carried forward with complete assurance and we have not lost any ground”, she said when asked whether she is satisfied with the WTO’s declaration.
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has rejected the allegations against India and said: “India blocking WTO?!”
The disappointment of India is understandable as developed nations such as the U.S. want to move away from the Doha issues.
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.
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.
Developing countries will also keep the flexibility to cover marketing and transport costs for agriculture exports until the end of 2023, and the poorest and food-importing countries will enjoy additional time to cut export subsidies.
National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) Vice President for Global Trade Issues Jake Colvin said the “WTO appears to have done a couple of things to demonstrate its importance as a trade body today, but it’s disappointing that delegations could not shake off the Doha round albatross completely”.
The trade deal is created to open up opportunities for the poorest and the most vulnerable developing countries to integrate better into the global trading system.
The negotiations “started a new phase in the WTO’s evolution” and showed “what is possible when the multilateral trading system comes together to solve a problem”.
But it added: “Other members do not reaffirm the Doha mandates, as they believe new approaches are necessary to achieve meaningful outcomes in multilateral negotiations”.
Two new countries – Liberia and Afghanistan – both least-developed countries, are expected to join the WTO next year.
The final declaration adopted Saturday said “many members” reaffirmed their “full commitment to conclude” the Doha Development Agenda goals.
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“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”. It will also make it easier for so-called least-developed countries to benefit from preferential market access for their goods.
