MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The right of the developing countries to the special safeguard mechanism to protect their farmers is recognized in the draft text of the World Trade Organization (WTO) declaration, seen by Sputnik, but it gives no details.
On Friday, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Raimundas Karoblis told Sputnik that export competition in agriculture was the most sensitive issue at a WTO conference in Kenya's Nairobi. Activists contend WTO tariff-reducing policies drive small farmers out of business and into poverty.
According to the draft, the WTO ministerial conference in Nairobi decided that, "the developing country Members will have the right to have recourse to a special safeguard mechanism (SSM) as envisaged under paragraph 7 of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration."
The voting on the declaration is expected in the next few hours.
Kenya's capital is currently hosting the WTO's conference, for which the economy ministers from over 160 states have gathered. The summit aims to define the course of multilateral trade relations for the coming years.
The issues discussed at the Nairobi conference include agriculture and possible relief of export subsidies, removal of barriers in the trade of IT products, opening markets to favor environmentally friendly goods and services and extending differential treatment to less developed countries.
