Bridges Africa

Analysis and news on African trade and sustainable development
WTO

Kenyan Ambassador Will Chair WTO Farm Trade Talks, Governments Agree

19 April 2017
Governments agreed on Friday 7 April that the Kenyan Ambassador to the WTO, Stephen Karau, will chair negotiations on agricultural trade issues at the Geneva-based organisation, breaking months of deadlock over who should take on the role. Karau was confirmed alongside other trade officials taking...
Agriculture

Least Developed Countries Propose New Caps on Trade-Distorting Farm Subsidies at WTO

2 February 2017
WTO members must agree to cuts and new ceilings for trade-distorting farm subsidies, says a proposal from a group of dozens of the world’s poorest countries at the global trade body. The submission from the group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) was tabled by Benin on 13 January, but has not yet...
WTO

The WTO’s role in fisheries subsidies and its implications for Africa

20 December 2016
Stephen Fevrier, Manleen Dugal
What should we expect from the current discussions on fisheries subsidies at the WTO? And what are the potential implications for African economies? Fisheries subsidies have been long identified as a critical issue for trade and sustainable development and, more recently, a matter of significant...
Agriculture

WTO farm talks chair welcomes negotiating "shift in gear"

30 November 2016
The chair of the WTO agriculture talks has welcomed what he called a “shift in gear” as members tabled several new proposals ahead of negotiating meetings held recently. Vangelis Vitalis, the New Zealand ambassador who chairs the negotiations, told members that an “overwhelming majority” of...
Agriculture

Farm exporting countries intensify reform push, despite US post-election uncertainty

18 November 2016
Negotiators from agricultural exporting countries have tabled three new proposals for WTO trade reforms, while acknowledging that last week’s unexpected US election result means that prospects for future progress are uncertain. The three documents were sponsored by different configurations of...
WTO Negotiations

Trade ministers in Oslo weigh WTO options for Buenos Aires meeting and beyond

28 October 2016
Trade ministers from over 20 WTO members concluded two days of informal talks from 21-22 October in Oslo, Norway, aiming to help give some political momentum and guidance to negotiations on possible outcomes for the global trade body’s next ministerial in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in late 2017...
WTO

Azevêdo urges WTO members to deepen engagement for MC11 outcomes

7 October 2016
WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo urged members this week to deepen their engagement as they work to determine possible negotiating outcomes for their Eleventh Ministerial Conference (MC11), which will be held in the Argentine capital city of Buenos Aires in late 2017. “This is the time to...
WTO Negotiations

WTO farm safeguard: Proponents, exporting countries spar over next steps

28 July 2016
Talks last week on negotiating a possible new agricultural safeguard mechanism for developing countries sparked intense debate among WTO members, sources say, with those in favour of the instrument at odds with farm exporting countries which argue it could harm trade. Sources say that last Thursday...
LDCs

LDC group outlines “collective view” on post-Nairobi WTO work

6 July 2016
The WTO’s Least Developed Country (LDC) Group has put forward a joint document reflecting their agreed views on how the global trade body should take its work forward in the wake of last December’s Tenth Ministerial Conference (MC10) in Nairobi, Kenya. The communication was circulated late last...
Agriculture

Farm subsidy reform: Major economies in WTO spotlight

24 June 2016
As developing country groups tabled two separate papers for WTO talks on farm subsidy reform, trade sources told Bridges that the reactions of major economies are likely to determine how negotiations now evolve. One of the informal submissions was put forward on 17 June by a group of Latin American...
Agriculture

Farm subsidy data gaps hampering progress in WTO talks, chair says

13 May 2016
“Troubling” delays in reporting farm subsidies to the WTO are holding up efforts to negotiate new trade rules, the chair of the organisation’s agriculture talks said on Monday. Around six out of seven – or 85 percent – of the trade body’s 162 members are currently behind in their commitments, said...
WTO MC10 (NAIROBI 2015)

Crunch time in Geneva as trade negotiators prepare for WTO ministerial

3 December 2015
Less than two weeks remain before trade ministers begin their biennial conference in Nairobi, Kenya, with WTO members still deeply divided on specific deliverables and how to address the organisation’s future negotiating work, including the Doha Round. The Nairobi ministerial conference is...
WTO MC10 (NAIROBI 2015)

WTO negotiators start to stake out shape of Nairobi declaration

20 November 2015
Negotiators have tabled a flurry of proposals on the text of the WTO’s ministerial declaration, ahead of the organisation’s ministerial conference in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi being held in less than five weeks’ time. With controversy over the fate of the trade body’s long-running Doha...
WTO Negotiations

Transparency in trade negotiations: How much is enough, how much is too much?

1 September 2015
Simon Lester
Some critics of trade negotiations allege that the process is too secretive, and draft texts should be made public. This paper argues that more transparency is needed, but that releasing drafts in this way could impede the process. Instead, transparency should be expanded at an earlier stage, when...
WTO MC10 (NAIROBI 2015)

Azevêdo calls on WTO members to set sights on Nairobi, with July deadline likely to be missed

10 August 2015
The 31 July deadline for inking a Doha Round “work programme” will very likely be missed, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo said on Tuesday, urging delegations to come prepared this autumn to redouble their efforts toward reaching “substantive outcomes” ahead of their December ministerial...
WTO Negotiations

Prospects dim for WTO Work Programme as July deadline approaches

16 July 2015
The prospects for reaching a Doha Round “work programme” by the end of this month are growing increasingly dim, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo told members last week. “Considering everything I have heard from members over the last three weeks, I see very little prospect of delivering a...
Doha Round

WTO’s Azevêdo warns of slow progress in Doha talks as July deadline approaches

4 June 2015
Talks aimed at crafting a work programme for resolving the outstanding areas of the WTO’s Doha Round are still not reaching the “necessary convergence” in order to meet an end-July deadline, Director-General Roberto Azevêdo warned the global trade body’s members this week. “We are still seeing good...
Doha Round

WTO chief urges members to redouble negotiating efforts as July deadline approaches

8 May 2015
The ongoing efforts to craft a Doha Round work programme have seen “positive engagement” in recent weeks, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo said on Tuesday. However, the global trade chief warned that members need to “redouble” their efforts and start tackling certain “gateway issues” if they...
Cotton

African countries call for progress in WTO cotton negotiations

3 December 2014
The four African cotton exporters Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali – collectively known as the Cotton 4 or C-4 – have urged fellow WTO members on 28 November to expedite negotiations on cotton in the wake of the resolution of the standoff over food stocks at the global trade body. Specifically,...
Rules of Origin

LDCs encourage WTO members to design more effective preferential Rules of Origin

1 December 2014
The Least Developed Countries Group at the WTO (LDCs Group) presented a report to the multilateral organization’s Committee on Rules of Origin on 30 October, calling for a more effective design of preferential rules of origin. In the report , the LDCs Group encourages WTO members to allow for...