The Kenyan trade minister charged with pushing forward compromise on agricultural issues at the World Trade Organisation summit has called on his colleagues to abandon political caution to make a deal possible.


Mukhisa Kituyi said at the summit’s first agriculture meeting: “Our diplomats in Geneva and our experts from capitals have not succeeded (in lower level talks) and now it is for ministers to show leadership and take responsibility and calculated risks.”


He called on ministers to avoid repeating oft-repeated stances: “We are here to find compromises between positions — not to tell others what they already know.” One such linkage was aired by Latin American countries: calling for rich importing countries to give duty-free and quota-free market access to alternative crops to illicit narcotic production within developing countries.