Nairobi WTO outcome close to ‘a miracle’

Kenya’s diplomatic might was unmistakable during the historic World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting that concluded in Nairobi last weekend. The behind-the-scenes story of tough negotiations that delivered the Nairobi Declaration is one of solid determination, immense ambition and great compromises.

Cabinet Secretary Foreign Affairs's Amina Mohammed, right, and Director General WTO Brazil's Roberto Azevedo display a copy of the WTO Draft Nairobi Declaration during Tenth Ministerial Conference at Kenyatta International Convention Center. PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO.

The negotiations teetered on the brink of collapse mid-week, but in the end the delegates delivered one of the most momentous trade packages since the founding of WTO 20 years ago. The result was as close as it gets to a miracle.

But miracles don’t come cheap. Negotiators worked long and hard – at times through the night and in the end extending the meeting by a day – to settle differences that persisted after two years of sweat and sacrifice. The work of drafting the declaration may have started way before Nairobi but much more needed to be done last week.

In closed-door discussions, Kenya had a formidable diplomatic team, led by Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed. But being the chair of the meeting, Ambassador Mohamed passed the responsibility of leading Kenya’s delegation to Eng Karanja Kibicho, the Principal Secretary in her ministry.

As the Kenya Ambassador to WTO in Geneva, I was honoured to serve as the deputy leader of the Kenyan delegation. Other top members of our delegation included Ambassadors: Nelson Ndirangu, Lazarus Amayo, Isaiah Kabira, Tom Amolo, Johnson Weru, Jean Kimani, Robinson Githae, Jean Kamau, and Koki Muli. The diplomats were backed by a great team of technical advisors led by Rabson Wanjala.

I was around the table as we brought to a close the intensive programme we had worked on in Geneva, Istanbul, Brussels and elsewhere through 2015. Credit must go to President Uhuru Kenyatta who gave us tremendous support throughout the process. That support was pivotal to the final achievements of the meeting.

The delegates showed up in Nairobi against the backdrop of the spectacular failure of members of the WTO to conclude the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) after 14 years of work. The agenda represents a strong package of trade issues focused on development, with huge benefits for countries of lower social economic status, many of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

The DDA had split members down the middle. One group wanted to reaffirm the entire DDA and its architecture, leaving it intact and without introduction of new issues. The other side wanted a process that would allow the remaining DDA issues to continue being addressed, the architecture to be re-examined and new issues to be brought to the table.

These divisions polarised the discussion. A collapse of the discussions in Nairobi would have dealt a severe blow to development issues under trade and to multilateral systems as represented by the WTO.

But as the negotiations dragged on into the small hours of the morning on December 19, the Kenyan team – which was required to be nonpartisan by the virtue of its hosting status – helped break the deadlock. The master stroke that solved the impasse was agreeing to keep all the remaining DDA issues on the table but find ways of addressing them in the future, leaving room for ambassadors of 164 member countries to go back to Geneva and complete the work.

This compromise unlocked key wins for Africa and for world trade in general. In agriculture, which was especially critical for African countries, members agreed on outcomes on export competition, headlined by the elimination of farm export subsidies and measures to discipline Export Credits, Food Aid and State Trading Enterprises.

An agreement on Public Stock Holding for food security will allow governments to buy food stuffs from farmers at a higher price than the market price and store them for food security purposes. The declaration also delivered the ‘cotton’ package, which guaranteed immediate elimination of export subsidies, enhanced market access for some key cotton producers in Africa.

In addition, the meeting also approved special safeguard mechanisms (SSM) – an instrument to address import surges and price decline for agricultural products, thereby protecting domestic producers. The least-developed countries (LDCs) won non-binding preferential rules-of-origin and implementation of preferential treatment for services suppliers from LDCs.

The results achieved in Nairobi are historic, they exceeded expectations. The negotiations are characteristic of the great determination of members to not let the first ministerial conference on the African soil fail. The results also speak of Kenya’s great diplomacy which brought together divided parties to deliver a pleasant end-of-the-year gift for Africa and for the world.

The Kenyans that made great preparations for the meeting and the ones that helped broker the deal – all under the leadership of Ambassador Mohamed – should feel honoured for their tremendous achievement.

—Dr Stephen Karau is Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN, WTO and other International Organisations in Geneva.