Western Producer reporter Barry Wilson was in Rome as world leaders gathered to find solutions to a growing food problem.
ROME – Boosters of a world trade deal this summer used last week’s food crisis summit to argue a trade liberalizing agreement is one of the answers to the problem.
“Overcoming today’s hurdles depends on a successful conclusion, as soon as possible, of the World Trade Organization’s Doha round with an agreement that will no longer treat agricultural trade as an exception to the rule and that will allow the poorest countries to generate income with their overproduction and exports,” Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told the food summit June 3.
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He was addressing world leaders at a meeting on high food prices, food insecurity, climate change and biofuel organized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
South African deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka made a similar pitch.
“We call for the speedy conclusion of the Doha development round within the context of the WTO round of negotiations, which will be a concrete and comprehensive response that binds all of us without imposing greater obligations on developing countries for the benefit of developed ones,” she said.
“The current high levels of agricultural commodity prices provides us with a unique opportunity to conclude the round that would lead to a real and substantial reduction in trade and production-distorting domestic support.”
WTO director general Pascal Lamy flew to Rome to make his own plea that the momentum from the food conference should be transferred to Geneva to inject life into the stumbling trade talks.
“International trade can help ease food shortages by channeling food to where it is required,” he said.
“It can lead to greater efficiency by shifting production to countries with the greatest comparative advantage. Through greater and fairer competition, international trade can help lower prices.”
A WTO deal would also lower rich country subsidies that create unfair competition while lowering tariffs.
“The WTO Doha round of trade negotiations can be part of the medium-to-long term response to the food price crisis,” Lamy said.
“It would reduce the trade-distorting subsidies that have stymied the developing world’s production capacity. It would also bring down tariffs – albeit while maintaining adequate safety nets – thereby increasing consumer access to food through lower prices.”
He made his pitch during a week in which WTO talks again seemed to stumble on the road to what Lamy hopes will be a meeting of ministers in late June to ratify a deal. Last week, negotiations on industrial tariff reductions were suspended because negotiators refused to budge. Agricultural talks were kept alive, but the most difficult issues remain to be tackled.
Meanwhile, delegates to the FAO conference heard a different message from non-governmental activists meeting in parallel sessions.
“From the point of view of civil society, Doha is the wrong way to go,” said Canadian Foodgrains Bank policy adviser Paul Hagerman.
He was one of hundreds of non-governmental organization representatives from around the world who held meetings and issued declarations on the edge of the conference.
“A strong theme in our meetings is the need for food sovereignty for developing countries and protection for small scale farmers,” Hagerman said.
“Doha goes in the opposite direction.”
A coalition of more than 200 groups from almost 50 countries issued a manifesto denouncing the WTO talks as running counter to a solution to the world food crisis and suggesting the need to strengthen small scale farming in developing countries.
The National Farmers Union, the Canadian Council for International Co-operation and the Mennonite Central Committee were among Canadian signatories.
“The global food system is in crisis; millions of people can no longer afford or access the food they need, increasing global hunger and malnutrition,” the manifesto said.
“The world’s governments need to act now, but the answer does not lie in deeper deregulation of food production and trade.”
