DUSHANBE, December 23, 2015, Asia-Plus — FAO has welcomed an agreement by World Trade Organization (WTO) member states through the recently adopted “Nairobi Package” to move towards eliminating export subsidies involving agricultural products. However, it also noted that differences remain over other measures aimed at creating fairer global trading conditions, in particular for developing countries.
A declaration issued on December 19 at the conclusion of the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference in Nairobi, Kenya reportedly includes a number of decisions in relation to the Agreement on Agriculture.
In particular, four ministerial decisions were adopted, addressing the following: 1) export competitiveness through the elimination of many export subsidies by all countries by 2018; 2) allowing developing countries to continue, for the time being, public stockpiling for food security; 3) the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) for developing countries to make recourse to when facing a surge of imports, and; and 4) a commitment by developed countries to provide duty-free and quota-free access to cotton exporters from less developed countries from 2016, provided that this is compatible with existing agreements.
FAO”s recently released
The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (SOCO) 2015-16
stresses how trade affects all four dimensions of food security: food availability, access, utilization and stability.
It also notes how trade and related policies affect the different dimensions of food security in ways that vary across and even within countries, and how these change over time as countries develop. Balancing short-run and long-run objectives is becoming vitally important considering that the nature of disruptions varies enormously and that market shocks will likely become more frequent due to geopolitical, weather and policy-induced uncertainties. While efforts to intervene and shield domestic markets from global price volatility could in fact lead to increased domestic price volatility, agricultural incentives play an important role in boosting agricultural production and efficiency and fostering broader economic growth.
Trade and food security concerns can be better reconciled in the multilateral trading system by improving the WTO”s Agreement on Agriculture. Striking the right balance between better trade policy disciplines and the policy space sought by developing countries has however proved difficult.
In the new edition of
SOCO
, FAO argues that stepping back to resolve underlying national concerns and priorities may well offer the best way forward. It notes how policy coherence for food security needs to be strengthened, thus enabling governments to better design trade policies, while improving compliance with regional and global trade frameworks.
