CANCUN, Mexico – The United Nations’ food agency says the world’s poorest countries face some “grim choices” if rich countries do not agree in the next year of trade talks to make the world food trading system work better for the poor.
In the midst of tense World Trade Organization negotiations last week that pitted an increasingly powerful and angry developing world against developed countries, the Food and Agriculture Organization came down firmly on the side of the poor.
“We are concerned about the trend to widening trade deficits in developing countries,” Hartwig de Haen, assistant FAO director general in the economic and social department, told a Sept. 12 news conference.
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“The Uruguay Round (the last world trade agreement) has not worked for the poor and the poorest.”
He offered solutions of reduced agriculture subsidies and more open markets in developed countries, coupled with special protection for developing countries, that sounded similar to the position being argued at the time by a powerful group of countries led by China, India and Brazil, dubbed the G21.
“We sympathize with a number of proposals in it (the G21 paper),” de Haen said. “It contains a number of things that are very reasonable.”
The FAO said that the net food trade balance among developing countries had gone from a small surplus in the late 1970s to a $6 billion deficit. It projected the deficit would grow to $18 billion by 2015 if trade policies are not changed and to $35 billion by 2030.
Cereal imports could increase from 100 million tonnes this year to 265 million tonnes by 2030.
