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The other agricultural decisions cover public stockholding for food security purposes, a special safeguard mechanism for developing countries, and measures related to cotton. Decisions were also made regarding preferential treatment for least developed countries (LDCs) in the area of services and the criteria for determining whether exports from LDCs may benefit from trade preferences.

Developed countries will immediately eliminate export-subsidy entitlements while developing nations must end direct support by the end of 2018, according to the ministerial declaration accepted on Saturday in the Kenyan capital. Talks at the trade body’s first ministerial conference on the African continent ran more than 24 hours past its self-imposed deadline.

“The decision you have taken today on export competition is truly extraordinary,” WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo said at the closing session of the conference. “It is the WTO’s most significant outcome on agriculture.”

Response from Farmer groups

Copa and Cogeca welcomed as a step forward the agreement made by world trade partners today in the DDA of world trade talks at the 10^th Ministerial conference in Nairobi, saying it gives momentum to the talks and to the multilateral trade system

Speaking in Brussels, Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen said “.We welcome the deal struck today on export competition as it keeps the talks alive. The EU has already agreed to phase out export subsidies. In fact, we have shown a very strong commitment to the multilateral trading system by not using export subsidies for some years now.  It seems though that export credits, as used by the US, are not considered by WTO members as trade distortive”.

He went on to say that the deal on agriculture is better than no agreement at all, although it is still unbalanced as it gives too much flexibility to developing countries, such as Brazil or India, to subsidize transport costs and public stockholdings.

“We also welcome the fact that the Doha Development Agenda, which includes talks on domestic support, has been kick-started. A strong multilateral trade system provides more certainty in trade compared to the bilateral trade talks”, he concluded.  

Fonterra, New Zealand's Dairy co-operative,  is hailing the agreement to eliminate all agricultural export subsidies  as a "historic breakthrough". John Wilson, chairman of the dairy co-operative, said it was good news for New Zealand dairy farmers. For years the use or the threat of export subsidies had pushed world dairy prices below their true level, he said.

"The Nairobi outcome takes global trade rules one essential step further towards a level playing field for dairy trade."

Agreements on agriculture

A centrepiece of the Nairobi Package is a Ministerial Decision on Export Competition (WT/MIN(15)/W/47), including a commitment to eliminate subsidies for farm exports. DG Azevedo described it as the “most significant outcome on agriculture” in the organization’s 20-year history.

“WTO members — especially developing countries — have consistently demanded action on this issue due to the enormous distorting potential of these subsidies for domestic production and trade,” he declared. “Today's decision tackles the issue once and for all.”

A number of countries are currently using export subsidies to support agriculture exports. The legally-binding decision would eliminate these subsidies and prevent governments from reverting to trade-distorting export support in the future.

Under the decision, developed members have committed to remove export subsidies immediately, except for a handful of agriculture products, and developing countries will do so by 2018. Developing members will keep the flexibility to cover marketing and transport costs for agriculture exports until the end of 2023, and the poorest and food-importing countries would enjoy additional time to cut export subsidies. 

The decision contains disciplines to ensure that other export policies are not used as a disguised form of subsidies. These disciplines include terms to limit the benefits of financing support to agriculture exporters, rules on state enterprises engaging in agriculture trade, and disciplines to ensure that food aid does not negatively affect domestic production. Developing countries are given longer time to implement these rules.

Ministers also adopted a Ministerial Decision on Public Stockholding for Food Security Purposes (WT/MIN(15)/W/46). The decision commits members to engage constructively in finding a permanent solution to this issue. Under the Bali Ministerial Decision of 2013, developing countries are allowed to continue food stockpile programmes, which are otherwise in risk of breaching the WTO's domestic subsidy cap, until a permanent solution is found by the 11th Ministerial Conference in 2017. 

A Ministerial Decision on a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) for Developing Countries (WT/MIN(15)/W/45) recognizes that developing members will have the right to temporarily increase tariffs in face of import surges by using an SSM. Members will continue to negotiate the mechanism in dedicated sessions of the Agriculture Committee.

In addition, a Ministerial Decision on Cotton (WT/MIN(15)/W/48) stresses the vital importance of the cotton sector to LDCs. The decision includes three agriculture elements: market access, domestic support and export competition. 

On market access, the decision calls for cotton from LDCs to be given duty-free and quota-free access to the markets of developed countries — and to those of developing countries declaring that they are able to do so — from 1 January 2016. The domesticsupportpart of the cotton decision acknowledges members' reforms in their domestic cotton policies and stresses that more efforts remain to be made. On export competition for cotton, the decision mandates that developed countries prohibit cotton export subsidies immediately and developing countries do so at a later date.