WTO talks not at deadlock – CS Amina Mohamed

The ministers attending the talks have been unable to agree on the time frame of eliminating the domestic support for the local large-scale farmers who are accused by farmers in poor countries of flooding the markets with cheap agricultural products.

Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have already agreed on certain issues including agreement on E-Commerce which is a new frontier in promoting worldwide trade.

The WTO talks entered the fifth day today as a deadlock continued over reducing farm subsidies and on providing protection to poor farmers of developing nations, such as India, in case of import surge.

“We are creating a new habit of success”, said WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo, referring to the first major successful conclusion of a ministerial conference since 2001.

The outcome is “better than I expected, it does something for cotton, it does something for export competition”, Andrew Crosby, managing director for operations and strategy at the Geneva-based International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, said in an interview in Nairobi.

WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell said a bigger percentage of the 163 members attending the Nairobi conference were not ready to discuss on formulating fair trade rules because of the 14-year impasse. Other members do not reaffirm the Doha mandates, as they believe the new approaches are necessary….

Talks in Bali two years ago were seen as more successful, resulting in several agreements, including one to standardise and streamline customs procedures.

“This round promised that issues of particular concern to developing countries, including small and vulnerable economies and least developed countries, would be at the heart of our work and decisions”.

Trade officials touted the WTO’s decision to abolish agricultural export subsidies, which leaders said would allow developing countries to better inegrate themselves into the global market.

“Fourteen years after the launch of the Doha round, we can not continue with business as usual”, Matthias Machnig, state secretary with Germany’s economic affairs ministry, said in a statement published on the WTO’s website.

It means developed countries have committed to remove export subsidies immediately, except for a handful of agriculture products, and developing countries will phase them out by 2018.

At the G-33, Sitharaman stressed that the grouping must be able to collectively send out a message that any outcome in Nairobi must be balanced and cover all elements of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA).