ROME, Italy – Unless changes are made to world trade rules, agriculturally developed countries will continue to dump their subsidized products into vulnerable developing countries, the newly re-elected head of the United Nations agriculture organization said Nov. 13.
Jacques Diouf, director general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, told a news conference that trade rules agreed to in Geneva in1993 are unfair to poor countries.
They left developed countries able to subsidize up to $280 billion (U.S.) per year while many developing countries were frozen at no subsidies.
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“It is just not fair,” Diouf said. “Let’s make one rule for everybody.”
He said the organization has been giving information to developing countries that will allow them to be better negotiators in the upcoming World Trade Organization talks.
“Having an international (trading) framework acceptable to the world is a step in the right direction,” he said.
“But let’s do it in a way that is fair. The figures are clear. We need to do it in a balanced and equitable way that does justice to the poor.”
It was a view widely expressed in the corridors at last weekend’s opening of the FAO biennial ministerial conference.
The developing world and poor countries must exert a stronger influence in the next WTO talks or be condemned to playing by rules written to reflect the interests of developed countries.
The majority of FAO members, who are among the poorest countries in the world, insist they be allowed to support their farmers to boost their capacity to feed themselves without relying on the dumped exports from rich subsidizing countries.
Celia Fernandez, a lawyer in the agriculture department of the Philippines, said, “I do think all the developing countries will be seeking and speaking the same thing. So in that sense, there will be unity of thinking. The rules must not just work for the few.”
