Global ministers during the recent annual World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting agreed a deal calling for cotton from least developed countries to be given duty-free and quota-free access to the markets of developed countries from January 2016 onward.

The meeting held in Nairobi stresses the vital importance of the cotton sector to least developed countries (LDCs). The decision includes three agriculture elements: market access; domestic support; and export competition. On market access, the decision has appealed 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 January 1, 2016.

The agreement provides 2016 as the first date from which the poor countries, which include 35 LDCs and the cotton four countries in Africa – Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad and Mali – and other developing countries, can begin to export cotton duty-free. The Nairobi package also contains decisions of specific benefit to LDCs, including enhanced preferential rules of origin for LDCs and preferential treatment for LDC services providers. This builds on the 2013 Bali ministerial decision on preferential rules of origin for LDCs, which set out, for the first time, a set of multilaterally agreed guidelines to help make it easier for the country's exports to qualify for preferential market access.

Key beneficiaries of the agreement will be sub-Saharan African countries, which make up the majority of the LDC group, the proponent for the agreement on preferential rules of origin for LDCs.

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