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WTO ministers try to broker stalemate over agriculture deal

Xinhua, December 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Trade Ministers went into long hours of negotiations on Friday after an apparent deadlock on key aspects of a deal on stopping state financial support to farmers to produce crops for the international export markets at below market prices.

Amina Mohammed, Kenyan Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary who is chairing the the 10th World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference here in Nairobi, told journalists there was no stalemate and disagreements between the developed and the developing countries and talks had been narrowed to the extent that both sides were cooperating on an inclusive deal.

"We have got good momentum. We are waiting for a final decision being made on the work program of the future. We are very close but not yet there. We hope to get there in a few more hours," Mohamed said late Friday as the four-day conference was postponed.

She revealed there was a major deadlock on the export competition area. 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.

The poor countries insist a timeline that considers the immediate lifting of the subsidized production of crops such as cotton, maize and other products, should be agreed at the Nairobi meeting.

"There is no direct dispute or conflict between the United States and India or any other country. Everybody is determined to make this happen. We are negotiating a trade dispute and everyone tries to get what is best," the Kenyan minister said.

Experts said the big question facing the Nairobi round of the trade talks was whether the rich countries were willing to negotiate in good faith and to give in to the demands for the removal of the subsidies to farmers in their countries to create an equal trade.

Meanwhile, the Kenyan foreign minister has praised the WTO for redeeming its waning influence on the global trade arena at the Nairobi talks.

"We are hoping to have a Nairobi Declaration that will prepare us for a more serious negotiating round such as the one in 2001 when we agreed on the Doha Round. We are optimistic it shall be done,"she said. Endit