Business updates

The WTO's Tenth Ministerial Conference was held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 15 to 19 December 2015. The Nairobi Package contains a series of six Ministerial Decisions on agriculture, cotton and issues related to least-developed countries (LDCs). These include a commitment to abolish export subsidies for agricultural exports.

The other agricultural decisions cover public stockholding for food security purposes, a special safeguard mechanism for developing countries, and measures related to cotton. Decisions were also made regarding preferential treatment for LDCs in the area of services and the criteria for determining whether exports from LDCs may benefit from trade preferences.

A centrepiece of the Nairobi Package is a Ministerial Decision on Export Competition. A number of countries are currently using export subsidies to support agriculture exports. The legally-binding decision would eliminate these subsidies and prevent governments from reverting to trade-distorting export support in the future.

On market access, the decision calls for cotton from LDCs to be given duty-free and quota-free access to the markets of developed countries and to those of developing countries as from 1 January 2016.

More information on the WTO Nairobi package can be access on:

https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news15_e/mc10_19dec15_e.htm