EU Set to Formally Abandon Ag Export Subsidies Early Next Year

The European Union is on course to formally eliminate agricultural export subsidies within the next three months, following Australia in implementing the decision made at the World Trade Organization's (WTO) 2015 Nairobi Ministerial meeting.The bloc circulated a revised schedule, a list of countries' commitments in the WTO, incorporating its engagement to scrap export subsidies in all its 28 member states during the two-day Committee on Agriculture of the WTO held on Oct. 17-18.WTO members committed to "exercise utmost restraint with regard to any recourse to all forms of export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect."The European Commission had first announced the policy change and submitted its revised goods schedule to the WTO via a statement published on Oct. 6. The next ministerial conference which will take place in Buenos Aires from Dec. 10-13.