Delegates during the opening session of the 10th WTO Ministerial
Conference in KICC, Nairobi, on December 15, 2015. Ms Amina Mohamed
recollects that they negotiated and kept the entire membership informed
and involved. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
At the start of 2015, the prospects for a successful outcome in
the Nairobi World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference were dim and
ominous. Pundits had forecast failure.
The Nairobi meeting was a negotiating conference. It was not convened to endorse a predetermined outcome.
Deadlock
and unresolved issues were forwarded to Nairobi from Geneva. Resolving
the main issues around the Doha Declaration would be difficult.
President
Uhuru Kenyatta provided leadership in his message to the membership by
calling for a strengthened, relevant WTO that would solve global
problems and contribute to the recovery and growth of the global
economy.
As the first African chairperson of a WTO
Ministerial Conference, the first to be held in Africa, it felt as if I
was carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.
Nairobi
was a classical negotiating situation. Chief negotiators came without
revealing their bottom lines, largely restrained by domestic factors and
pressures.
But we rose to the occasion. We had minimal
sleep and minimal nourishment. For four days and three nights, we
negotiated and kept the entire membership informed and involved.
ACHIEVEMENTS
In
all, the Nairobi meeting produced six ministerial decisions on
agriculture, cotton and issues related to least-developed countries.
First,
a major breakthrough was reached in agriculture, with the outlawing of
export subsidies in developed economies and in developing countries by
2018 and 2023 respectively. This represents a valuable levelling of the
playing field.
Secondly, a breakthrough was achieved on
export competition on cotton, where ministers decided on the
prohibition of export subsidies immediately by developed members and
developing countries to do so at a later date.
Third,
also associated with agriculture, the Nairobi Package reaffirmed the
Bali decision on public stockholding for food security purposes.
Fourth,
in the Information Technology Agreement, members agreed on a timetable
for eliminating export tariffs on various products, with all WTO members
set to enjoy duty-free access to the markets of the members eliminating
tariffs on these products.
Consequently, two-thirds of tariff lines will be fully eliminated by July 1, 2016.
The
fifth outcome of significance is for Least Developed Countries. It
included enhanced preferential rules of origin and preferential
treatment for LDC service providers.
The meeting decided on the facilitation of opportunities for LDCs export of goods to developed and developing countries.
FOCUSED DIRECTION
No
less important Nairobi approved the terms and conditions of membership
of Afghanistan and Liberia, two least developed countries.
We accepted that some WTO members may wish to raise other negotiating issues in the WTO.
However,
coupled to this recognition was the decision that a consensus would be
required before the launch of these negotiations.
Finally,
substantively, ministers confronted the major negotiating question of
the continuity of the 14-year Doha Round mandate.
As
in all negotiating situations, where positions are unbridgeable, the
polar positions were acknowledged in the Nairobi Declaration.
As the chairperson, this outcome was not fatal for the WTO.
The WTO has been reset and is now pointed in the right direction.
Amb. Amina Mohamed is the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade and was the chairperson of the 10th
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