Trade leaders move toward ending Doha Round

Global trade leaders moved closer to ending the Doha Round of talks and leaving behind those negotiations for a fresher, more modern approach.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said the results in Nairobi this week will allow the conversation to focus on unresolved issues within the Doha framework while turning to new policy areas. 

{mosads}“While opinions remain divided among the WTO membership, it is clear that the road to a new era for the WTO began in Nairobi,” Froman said.

Froman said WTO members next year will now be “freed to consider new approaches to pressing unresolved issues and begin evaluating new issues for the organization to consider.”

Significant progress was made on the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement, which is aimed at reducing global trade costs by streamlining the flow of goods across countries, he said. 

During talks this week, there were six new acceptances, bringing the total to 63 WTO members that have ratified the agreement.

The ministers also reached agreement on a package that will bolster global development including a ban on export subsidies for agricultural products, export credits and food aid.

Roberto Azevêdo, director-general of the WTO, said that the elimination of the export subsidies was the WTO’s “most significant” outcome on agriculture.

The Information Technology Agreement was completed earlier in the week.

Ahead of the Nairobi trade meetings, Froman had said that Doha Round, which kicked off in 2001, needed to be closed to free up WTO members to take new avenues on trade that will likely include smaller regional deals focused on specific policy areas instead of a sweeping agreements.

Two new countries — Liberia and Afghanistan — both least-developed countries, are expected to join the WTO next year.

National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) Vice President for Global Trade Issues Jake Colvin said the “WTO appears to have done a couple of things to demonstrate its importance as a trade body today, but it’s disappointing that delegations could not shake off the Doha Round albatross completely.”

“In 2016, like minds must find new pathways to advance a timely and relevant agenda that responds to the realities of the 21st century global economy,” Colvin said.