Kenya says Nairobi trade talks require goodwill

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday pleaded with delegates attending a make-or-break international conference on redefining the global trading environment to compromise on major issues and deliver an international deal on countering poverty through trade.

"The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has made major successes in the global economy. It has supported countries to integrate into the global economic system," Kenyatta said in an opening address to the 162 ministers of trade attending talks in Nairobi.

The 10th series of the WTO talks, centred on building a new trade regime for the world, looked shaky from the start, after the rich countries failed to agree on an agenda of the talks.

The disagreements continued with the failure to adopt an agreed set of issues to propel trade into the future.

With the prospect of the Nairobi talks ending in a deadlock, the WTO Secretariat, whose credibility also depends on whether it would foster an acceptable trade deal for the world's poorest countries, still hoped some peripheral deals could be reached, but no deal on the Doha Round.

Under the Doha Round, poor countries had hoped to find solutions to issues affecting their capacity to trade on equal footing with the rich countries.

The deals promised under the Doha Round, was to access cheaper medicine, open up markets for poor countries and access funds to develop manufacturing capacity.

Kenyatta said the outcome of the Nairobi Ministerial meeting would affect other issues, including poverty, insecurity and global inequality.

"Let us seize this moment to reach a mutually beneficial compromise. Allow yourself anything but success," he said.

The Kenyan leader said the Nairobi talks were important to ensure the developing countries could also reach their own goals of fighting poverty.

"The conference is important to unlock the economic potential of many countries. This conference takes place at a time when the global economy is experiencing a slowdown. Trade is important to promote economic growth," he added.

Kenyatta said the kind of compromises that led to an agreement on a new global climate agreement in Paris, was required in Nairobi, to make the trade talks a success.

At the Nairobi talks, a global coalition of civil society organisations protested the renewed attempt by the U.S. government and allies, Australia, Switzerland and Japan, to have the Doha Round dropped.

The civil society organisations also criticized the WTO for allowing itself to be used by the world's rich countries to undermine international agreements reached at the UN recently.

In a statement availed to Xinhua, the international network of 457 organisations criticized the WTO for allowing the international deregulation of the financial sector, which ignited the global financial crisis.

The civil society called for the WTO to be overhauled and replaced by an international organisation to regulate trade for the benefit of farmers and local communities rather than a body that regulates the discipline of states with a narrow goal of boosting worldwide trade.

In his speech, Kenyatta instead said the WTO members should instead accelerate the journey to a market system of trade in agricultural produce.

"This system can deliver successful outcomes to the global economy," the Kenyan President said. Endit