A
much-reduced trade deal has been brokered in Nairobi, Kenya, by members of the
World Trade Organization.
The biggest
issue for Canada is an end to all export subsidies within three years.
That
will hit Canadian dairy exports hard, but also chicken if the Americans catch
on to the “market development” program tjhey run.
The
office of the United States Trade Representative has outlined some points of
agreement in a public memorandum.
It says
the end of export subsidies "ensures an end to Canadian dairy and Indian
sugar export subsidies, while also preventing export-oriented countries like
Brazil from taking advantage of such measures going forward."
That blows a huge hole in the Canadian dairy farmers' proposals to lower milk prices so it can develop a domestic processing industry to both end imports of milk components and go after export markets.
As with Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) in the U.S., Canadian supply management has so deeply offended our trading partners that they will not likely settle for anything less than a complete end to the system.
The WTO agreement requires developed countries to immediately eliminate export
subsidies and gives developing countries three years to phase them out,
according to the agency.
Developing
countries will be allowed to use limited export subsidies for transportation
and marketing until 2023, subject to certain conditions.
WTO
members committed to new disciplines regarding agricultural export financing,
including export credits, direct financing and interest rate support.
The deal
also includes new disciplines on food aid, but "ensures the United States
is able to continue to provide recipient countries with food assistance through
programs currently operated," USTR said.
Years
ago the negotiators working on a new World Trade Agreement had agreed to adopt
voluntary guidelines already followed by many nations, including Canada.
Bringing
them into the WTO would make them mandatory disciplines with the normal WTO
sanctions available as remedies.
The
United States has consistently violated the voluntary guidelines, particularly
in requiring that its food aid move on U.S. ships and be handled by union
workers. It has also used food aid to dump its surpluses in ways that have
disrupted markets and made life more difficult for poor farmers in poor
countries.
WTO
members will "enhance transparency and monitoring in relation to
trade-related aspects of cotton in the WTO," USTR said.
That is
an issue of particular interest to impoverished farmers in countries such as
Mali, Africa. Again, the U.S. is the culprit.
That
agreement is outlined in a separate fact sheet on outcomes to help the WTO's Least
Developed Countries.
Members
will continue to meet twice each year to study the latest information and to
discuss the latest developments on market access, domestic support and export
subsidies for cotton.
