Benson Kathuri
15 April 2006
Nairobi — African trade ministers yesterday agreed to work together towards the conclusion of the on-going negotiations on Doha Development Agenda by the end of this year.
The ministers adopted a 29-point Nairobi ministerial declaration on the Doha work programme as the continent's common position in the negotiations.
"We re-dedicate ourselves to the important task of completing the trade negotiations by the end of this year, " said the declaration that was unanimously endorsed by all ministers who attended the fourth session of the African Union trade ministers' conference in Nairobi. "We commit ourselves to work with other trading partners in achieving fully the development objectives of this round."
They vowed to ensure that the outcome of the negotiations reflects development priorities of the continent.However, there were concerns that the time frame was highly ambitious, but the ministers promised to support the on-going efforts to establish modalities to guide the negotiations on key issues like agriculture.
"The modalities to be agreed upon in agriculture should include all issues of interest to Africa and support policies that are conducive of the development goals, poverty reduction strategies, food security and livelihood concerns," indicated the declaration.
"We expect balanced progress and meaningful results in the negotiations on market access, domestic support and export competition."
The ministers called for real progress in domestic support and export competition in order to achieve modalities that address trade distortions in agriculture that African countries are normally faced with.
The developed countries led by the EU and the US spends billions of shillings annually to support their farmers who later dump their produce to the international market at low prices.
This tends to negatively impact on products from developing countries, which are rendered uncompetitive.
Chaired by Kenya's Trade and Industry minister, Mukhisa Kituyi, the ministers demanded specific proposals on reduction of agricultural subsidies in the two world's largest trading blocks. "Recognising the vital importance of long standing preferences to African countries in agriculture, we urge that trade-related solutions to be developed to address the problems," said Kituyi.
"We stress the vital importance of cotton and urgent need to achieve full modalities by the end of April 2006 as agreed in Hong Kong, including the substantial reduction of domestic support and the establishment of a mechanism to deal with price fluctuations of cotton, as a matter of priority."
The ministers, however, expressed concern that WTO members might fail to meet the April 30 deadline set to establish modalities aimed at concluding the negotiations by December this year. "We are deeply concerned with the lack of progress in the work mandated on the modalities for agriculture and non-agricultural market access," they said.
"Considering the deadlines set for this work, at the end of April, we reiterate the urgency to meet all the commitments and the development promises of the Doha round so that the development needs and concerns of Africa and the Least Development Countries members are taken into account," indicated the declaration.
However, there was concern that the deadline may be missed, as the developed countries demand a section of developing countries to open their market for goods and services from their markets.
Both the EU and the US are demanding Brazil, India, China and South Africa to open their markets for manufactured goods from the developed countries before they can honour their commitment.
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