WTO members confirmed in a regular meeting of the Agriculture Committee on 9 March that they will monitor the implementation of the Nairobi decision to abolish export subsidies during the next dedicated discussion on export competition to be held in June.

The committee also undertook its more routine work to review countries’ policies through questions and answers.

Implementing Nairobi decisions

The committee considered the implementation of a decision to eliminate export subsidies and discipline other forms of export support adopted at the WTO Nairobi Ministerial Conference in December 2015. The decision instructs the regular Committee on Agriculture to monitor the implementation of the decision, based on information from members on their export measures.

The Chairperson, Mr. Michael Wamai of Uganda, reminded members that an examination of export subsidies and other export support measures would take place in the committee’s June meeting. It is the continuation, as decided by members in Nairobi, of the annual discussions on the export support measures held by the committee since 2014, following a decision at 2013 Bali Ministerial Conference where members agreed to “exercise utmost restraint” in using export subsidies.

Members expressed their commitment to faithfully implement the decision; several members with export subsidy reduction commitments said that they have already started internal process to revise their schedules for export subsidies in accordance with the Nairobi decision.

Review of world trade growth

The review is part of an exercise to monitor global trade growth and detect abrupt export increases. It is based on a document compiled by the WTO Secretariat, which highlights the annual shares of world trade of major agriculture exporters.

Members noted that trade had increased in most agriculture sectors, and an increasing number of countries are taking part in agriculture trade. In particular, developing countries’ share in global agriculture trade increased – while the EU and the US remain the largest exporters of many agriculture products, emerging countries are quickly catching up. Some members noted that an open trading system contributed to the increasing number of countries taking part in trade.

Questions and answers

The committee undertook its regular monitoring of countries’ agriculture policies, through a review process where members share information of their agriculture policies and ask questions to each other.

Out of the questions discussed in this meeting – see document – 24 arose from information available elsewhere that has not yet been notified, and 27 were about members’ notifications on their farm programmes. Questions and answers from all meetings are compiled in the Agriculture Information Management System database, and can be searched using their ID.

Net food importing countries

Morocco, on behalf of the African Group, pointed to the decline of food aid delivered to net food-importing developing countries and least-developed countries. A document prepared by the WTO shows that total food aid delivered to these countries have been following a declining trend over the last ten years. The African Group called on members to increase the financial and technical assistance.

Qatar asked to be added to the list of net food-importing developing countries, noting that over 90% of its foodstuff was imported last year. A few members indicated that they need more time to study the data and consider the request.

Notifications

The committee looked at the state of compliance with notification obligations – see its latest version. Over a third of domestic support notifications are overdue (769 or 37% of the total expected) and a similar figure for export subsidies (805 or 35%). The chairperson reminded members that compliance with their obligations to provide data is crucial to enable the committee’s work.