The Ministerial Decision, taken at the WTO’s Ministerial Conference in Nairobi in December 2015, eliminates agricultural export subsidies and measures with equivalent effect, thereby making a major contribution to the UN target which reads: “Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round.”

The Director-General presented the decision to the Secretary-General at a meeting in New York of the UN Chief Executives Board for Coordination. The decision will help to level the playing field in agriculture markets, to the benefit of farmers and exporters in developing and least-developed countries. It will help limit potential similar distorting effects associated with export credits and exporting state trading enterprises. In addition, it establishes an improved framework for international food aid, helping to ensure that this essential lifeline is maintained, while ensuring that it doesn’t disrupt local markets, which can be counter-productive.

The Director-General said:

“It is a great pleasure to present this important WTO decision to the Secretary-General. With this decision WTO Members have made a collective and historic contribution to delivering on a key target of the Sustainable Development Goals. The decision will make a big difference for developing countries by eliminating agricultural export subsidies. It is the most significant reform of global rules on agriculture trade for 20 years.

“This achievement shows the contribution that trade can make to development – and there are many other areas of the Sustainable Development Goals where trade can make a difference. WTO members are already discussing action in a number of important areas, such as eliminating tariffs on environmental goods and taking action on subsidies that lead to over-fishing. Trade was vital in meeting the Millennium Development Goal to cut extreme poverty by half. I have no doubt that trade will be just as important in delivering the new Sustainable Development Goals.”

The role of trade and the WTO in improving lives and livelihoods is present throughout the Sustainable Development Agenda, and will be essential to realising many of the SDGs.

The meeting of the UN Chief Executives Board for Coordination placed a particular focus on SDG 13: Climate Action. The WTO has a particular role to play here in ensuring that trade is conducted in a way that helps to protect and preserve the environment. In this context a group of WTO members are pursuing negotiations on an Environmental Goods Agreement. This initiative would eliminate tariffs on a broad range of environmental goods and as such would provide an important contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, as well as the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The Environmental Goods Agreement includes technologies to help mitigate and adapt to climate change, mainly through improvements in energy efficiency and greater access to renewable energy, as well as key technologies used in air pollution control, waste water treatment, resource efficiency, solid waste management, and environmental clean-up, among others. Lowering barriers to trade in these goods would help producers and consumers worldwide to access a wide range of green technologies at lower cost. This is an example of the type of integrated initiative that the 2030 Agenda calls for, and of the continuing role that the WTO can play in that effort.