Results of the Tenth WTO Ministerial Conference – Nairobi, December 15 – 18, 2015

The Brazilian Government expresses its satisfaction with the results of the Tenth WTO Ministerial Conference, held in Nairobi from 15 to 18 December 2015, which resulted in an important step on the liberalization of international trade in agricultural products. The prohibition of export subsidies for agricultural products and the disciplining of equivalent measures, as favored official credits, distorted food aid and inappropriate use of State-owned enterprises, achieved in Nairobi, are long overdue aspirations of developing countries and of agricultural products exporting countries, which finally allow for symmetry of treatment between industrial and agricultural goods. By the same token, Brazil has received with satisfaction the decisions in favor of the least-developed countries and in other areas.

The results attained in Nairobi confirm the WTO ability to achieve relevant results on a multilateral and non-discriminatory context when there is effective engagement of its members. Accordingly, negotiations on other issues of the Doha round will be resumed, and the existence of consensus to address new issues will be examined.

The Brazilian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira actively contributed to negotiations with technical and language solutions, which helped form the resulting consensus.

Brazil keeps its commitment, from the outset, to continue seeking the reforms that will allow greater access of Brazilian products to the international market, the substantial reduction of domestic support to agricultural products that hinders fair competition and, in general, the promotion of fairer conditions on international trade.

The main results are the following:

1) Immediate ban on subsidies to the export of agricultural products by developed countries and, in three years, by developing countries, with a few exceptions.

2) Disciplines of financing to agriculture exporters with official support, which will now be limited to 18 months, to avoid distorting exports through subsidized credit.

3) Long-term balance obligation for credit insurance to agricultural products and for charging risk proportional premiums, so that agricultural products do not gain competitiveness based on the power of public funding.

4) Initial disciplines to prevent State-owned enterprises exporting agricultural products to grant disguised subsidies, and a work program to develop these disciplines.

5) Disciplines to prevent food aid from distorting competition, negatively affecting domestic production of the countries receiving the aid.

6) Disciplines on rules of origin to tariff preferences mechanisms in favor of least-developed countries.

7) Extension of the waiver that allows trade preferences on services trade to least-developed countries.

8) Extension of the moratorium on the collection of fees in e-commerce.

9) Extension of the moratorium on so-called non-violation dispute in the area of intellectual property.

10) Waiver to least-developed countries on the implementation of certain provisions of the WTO Agreement on Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.