Some details
These “regular” Agriculture Committee meetings deal with routine WTO work, and not the current negotiations which take place in separate “special sessions”. The committee comprises all WTO members.
Food security and net food importers
In a discussion on the situation of net food importing developing and least developed countries, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization reported that the world’s food import bill is heading for a new peak of US$1.29 trillion this year, an unprecedented surge of US$250 billion, with all food categories registering double-digit percentage increases.
The World Bank also reported that “price-insulating policies by WTO members during the crises have magnified price movements,” an assessment that sparked a critical response from some delegations.
Argentina reacted particularly to the World Bank’s suggestion that “trade policy responses — including export restrictions and import barrier reductions — appear to have been important influences on price levels and volatility in recent years,” and “to minimize the impact of future price spikes, clear commitments to avoiding the use of export restrictions on food will be needed. This should be particularly applied to humanitarian aid, as this will be of critical importance to maintain price stability in periods of food stress.”
The World Bank’s focus is wrong, and overlooks the destabilizing impact of subsidies and other policies in rich countries which distort agricultural trade markets, Argentina said.
Although this is a regular annual item on the committee’s agenda, this year delegates had in their minds proposals to include food security on the agenda of the 15-17 December WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva and the wider concerns raised by the G-20 group of world leaders.
Several members welcomed the G-20s creation of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), hosted by the FAO and with the participation of a number of international organizations including the WTO.
One of the proposals for the Ministerial Conference came from the net food importing developing countries and African and Arab groups, presented by Egypt.
Discussed at a specially convened meeting the previous day, the proposal would ask WTO members’ ministers to recognize that ensuring food security for their populations is governments’ first priority. It proposed that the Ministerial Conference direct the General Council to set up a comprehensive work programme for least developed and net food-importing developing countries, to:
- ensure these countries have access to adequate supplies of basic foodstuffs
- consider new rules to exempt them from other WTO members’ export restrictions, particularly major exporters
- help these countries have access to trade finance for example through a revolving fund offering concessional terms
Most members broadly supported the idea of a work programme, but several needed more time to consider the proposal, which they had only just received, and several had reservations about the detail. No decision was taken.