Off the wire
• Finland to seek exemption from EU's firearms directive  • Non-invasive test could help diagnose rare childhood cancer: study  • Offshore platform fire partially extinguished in Azerbaijan  • Ireland sets ambitious course for carbon-free energy system  • Lithuania wants sovereignty assurances if European border guard force implemented  • Spanish stock market falls 0.01 pct  • AU calls for further joint efforts to fight terrorism  • Lebanon rejects Syrian demand to repatriate Qaddafi  • Roundup: Poorest countries left little options as fair trade talks show no progress  • Spain's business creation falls by 6.9 pct in October  
You are here: 　 Home

Bid to halt Doha Development Round draws protests during WTO meeting

Xinhua, December 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Activists mainly representing farmers on Wednesday protested against attempts to halt the Doha Development Round in Nairobi, Kenya where a World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference is being held.

Protesters gathered outside the meeting halls shouting "No new issues," denouncing the bid by some developed countries to abandon the Doha Round and replace it with a set of so-called "new issues".

The protestors included 80 civil society experts, trade unionists, farmers and development activists from some 25 countries.

The Doha Development Round is the current trade-negotiation round of WTO aimed at lowering trade barriers around the world.

Asian and African agricultural crop producers expect the Doha Round to cut subsidies on food products and open up markets to products from poor countries.

Civil society groups have accused the U.S. of blocking food security, saying there was need to find a permanent solution to public stock-holding and have special safeguards for developing countries.

The groups are working within the WTO under the "Our World is Not for Sale" Network, grouping 457 organizations.

"Everyone knows that agriculture is the worst since there are unfair rules, the rich can subsidize farming but the poor countries cannot, this must be changed," the groups said in a joint statement.

When addressing the WTO meeting, Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb denied his country was trying to stop the negotiations on the Doha Round.

Robb said the proposal was to try a new method of breaking the 14-year long stalemate under a new system.

The civil society groups said the direction of the talks would have a severe impact on the food security of the world.

They called for a WTO "turnaround" on food security, disciplines on cotton trade and a Least Development Countries (LDCs) package which they said had been long overdue. Endit