Removal of ag subsidies pleasing – trade expert

That's what Stephen Jacobi says, executive director, New Zealand International Business Forum.

That is especially the case given the inability of the WTO to agree on much at all in recent years, he told Dairy News.

"The outcome from the Ministerial was better than I expected," he says.

"The agreement on export subsidies is significant for NZ even if, disappointingly, some countries like Canada and Norway get to continue to use them for a few years.

"The agreement is more in the way of a political understanding because it cannot be enforced through dispute settlement. Use of export subsidies by major economies like the EU and US has been less of a problem more recently but this agreement will make it harder for them to be used in the future."

The outcome on the Doha Development Agenda was disappointing, he says.

The Doha Development Agenda (DDA) started in November 2001 under then director-general and New Zealand Mike Moore with the objective to lower trade barriers around the world, and facilitate increased global trade.

"The US and EU appear to have concluded that Doha is over and even if it isn't over technically, it might as well be. That is not good news for the global trading system and especially for developing countries," says Jacobi.

Jacobi says he is also concerned at the delay in bringing the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) into force (NZ ratified last September).

"If something as straightforward as the TFA cannot be quickly implemented, one wonders about other more substantive matters," he says.

The TFA contains provisions for expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods including cooperation between customs and other similar authorities, according to the WTO website.

However Jacobi says the decision to expand the Information Technology Agreement was also positive – and shows the WTO can work if members set their mind to it.

The aim of that treaty is to lower taxes and tariffs on information technology products.