The European Union (EU) has welcomed Kenya's compromise stance on expanding markets for developing countries and said it would increase aid to help Africa meet its prosperity goals.

"The European Commission (EC, the executive arm of the EU) welcomes Kenya's position paper for the Hong Kong ministerial conference. The paper is an indication of Kenya's commitment to the Doha Development Agenda (DDA)," Eric van der Linden, head of the EC delegation in Kenya, said in a statement available here Friday.

Kenyan trade negotiating experts released the country's position paper Wednesday, calling on African countries to stop relying on the position taken by the rich nations and negotiate on their taxation measures independently.

The Kenyan team to lead the WTO ministerial talks on agriculture said the rich nations must ensure wide market access for African agricultural products without expecting similar treatment from Africa.

The EU said the position paper showed the east African nation's willingness to actively contribute to the negotiations.

Linden said Kenya should be applauded for continuing to play a very active role in multilateral and indeed important regional trade discussions.

"The EC is devoted to ensuring that this WTO round really puts trade at the service of development. The level of ambition, particularly on services, in the negotiating position paper illustrates once again the important leadership role that Kenya is playing in this vein," he said.

He said it considered Hong Kong as an important milestone in the DDA.

And that it expects the December 13-18 conference to lock in the progress made since the 2004 Framework Agreement and serve as a springboard for advance in 2006.

The EU wants the United States and Canada to ensure all developed countries to provide duty free and quota free access to products from the Least Developed Countries, the statement said.

"We need to ensure that negotiations are balanced, within the different negotiating areas as well as between them. Market opening for goods and services badly needs to catch up, as do talks aimed at strengthening existing rules. All these areas are important for global trade," it added.

The document, titled Kenya's Position Paper for the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, urges the team to exercise the best negotiating skills to ensure that progress not only in agriculture, nonagricultural (NAMA) but also trade in services.

On the tariff reduction formula, the country's position in agriculture is that the agreed formula should give developing countries the maximum flexibility to protect their products.

The paper said developing countries that opted for the ceiling binding approach during the Uruguay Round should be allowed to continue using the formula.

Source: Xinhua