Trade Policy for Sustainable Food Security
Since 1996, when 185 governments committed themselves at the World Food Summit in Rome to have reduced the number of the world’s hungry by half until the year 2015, no significant progress has been made. Still, almost 800 billion people do not have sufficient access to food.
WHAT IS AT STAKE?
Beginning November 2001, the FAO member states will review the situation and discuss solutions. Their influence may remain small, as right after, in Qatar, the Council of Ministers of the World Trade Organisation are meeting. Their agenda will include the Agreement on Agriculture. Since the failure of Seattle in December 1999, the demands of developing countries have become louder. Will they make an impact on the Qatar agenda? Will trade liberalization receive a more human face and food security become a true concern? Will people be put before profit?
FOOD SECURITY IN THE AGREEMENT ON AGRICULTURE
The Agreement on Agriculture defines food security as a non-trade concern and states in its preamble that “commitments under the reform programme should be made in an equitable way among all Members, having regard to non-trade concerns, including food security and the need to protect the environment; having regard to the agreement that special and differential treatment for developing countries is an integral element of the negotiations, and taking into account the possible negative effects of the implementation of the reform programme on least-developed and net-food importing developing countries”. Good words, but did good deeds follow?
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