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Final statement at the FAO Ministerial Conference

Mr. Chairman, Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very pleased to have this opportunity to address the Conference of FAO on behalf of the European Commission.

The European Union is a major actor in international cooperation and development assistance in particular regarding food security and sustainable rural development, which are amongst its key objectives. Promoting food security in the developing world depends among other things on coherence in trade, aid, food aid and domestic policies. This coherence needs also to be reflected in the WTO negotiations to be launched later this week in Qatar.

Any effective strategy to reduce hunger and increase food security must incorporate the reduction and eventual eradication of poverty. One essential tool in this respect is to integrate developing countries, and in particular the poorest among them, much better into the global economy and into the world trade. This is a challenge not least for us in the developed world, to open up our markets for trade from the developing countries.

Our trade policy is increasingly designed to foster the smooth and gradual integration of developing countries into the world trade system. In terms of agricultural trade, as you may know, we are frequently accused of being protectionist. And yet, we are the world's largest importer of agricultural products. But more to the point, we are by far the largest importer of agricultural goods from developing countries. The EU alone imports more agricultural goods from the developing countries - over 35 billion Euros worth every year - than the US, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand taken all together.

This record on trade is in large part due to the trade preferences we offer, including through our generalised system of preferences, our agreement with the ACP countries, and other bilateral arrangements.

This year, we went further, opening up full access to our market for the world's 49 least developed countries for all products except arms. We very much hope, and this we are asking internationally, that others will follow our example.

In terms of aid, too, the European Community and its Member States lead the world, providing about 50% of total international official development assistance, and two-thirds of all the world's development grants. Per head of population, the EU contributes some $70. As major contributors of technical assistance, we believe that when trade opportunities are offered to the developing world, and especially to the least developed countries, it is essential to provide technical assistance in order to ensure that the beneficiaries can take advantage of the trade possibilities offered.

Food aid is no solution to the problems of world hunger, and can even be counterproductive. It must not be used as a way to get rid of agricultural surpluses. We seek to provide direct food aid only in specific situations where it is requested, to save lives during emergencies, to provide safety nets for vulnerable groups, and to facilitate the transition from relief to rehabilitation and long-term development. Our preferred option is to provide financial assistance, and promote regional and local purchases of food to provide food aid.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I have mentioned in particular the importance of trade, the role of preferences in trade, the need for technical assistance in this respect, and the aspect of food aid, because they are very much on my mind at the moment, not only because, correctly organised, they are key elements in poverty alleviation and food security but also because there can and should be improvements in all these elements in the context of the World Trade Organisation negotiations.

I and many others go to Doha later this week, firmly committed to the launch of a new round of multilateral trade negotiations. Those negotiations must, in the view of the European Union, have a strong development theme.

The negotiations on agriculture are of particular importance in this context, given the heavy dependence on agriculture of many developing countries. The fundamental objective must be a progressive establishment of a fair and market orientated agricultural trading system. This implies a gradual process of adaptation in which all WTO members, and especially the developing countries, can better integrate their agriculture into the world trading system.

However, it is clear that there must be special conditions for developing countries, in order to help them adapt to the demands for further liberalisation. Such conditions are part of the proposal tabled by the European Union in Geneva, for the WTO negotiations:

• We propose, in addition to multilateral liberalisation, and in order to increase market access to products originating in developing countries, that developed countries and the wealthiest developing countries provide significant trade preferences to developing countries
  
  
• We propose that other developed countries open their markets to the least developed countries for all products, as we have recently done
  
  
• We propose that together we examine how to make trade preferences stable and predictable, so that further investment in, and development of agricultural and agri-food sectors in developing countries is encouraged
  
  
• We propose that domestic support measures which promote the vitality of rural areas and seek to deal with the food security concerns of developing countries should be subject to more flexible rules than those applying to developed countries
  
  
• And on food aid, we recognise that in spite of all efforts to the contrary, it will still be necessary in certain cases. We propose, however, that new disciplines be introduced, so that food aid to the least developed countries and to net food importing developing countries be given in fully grant form and in ways which do not damage local food production
  
  
• Finally, as part of our general policy to promote the sustainable and economic development of developing countries, we propose that developed countries should intensify all forms of assistance to developing countries.

We believe that the process of integrating the developing countries into the world trading system is a key element in redressing the economic imbalance in the world today.

However, we fully recognise that this process should not run faster than developing country members can manage: they must be able to make the necessary adaptations. For this reason, different timetables may be needed in the programme of tariff adjustments.

Mr. Chairman, Ministers, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen:

The European Union is frequently criticised because of its common agricultural policy. We recognise that our policy is not perfect. But we are progressively reforming it. In that process, we have opened up our market to become the major market for exports of agricultural products from the developing world. And we are ready to go further. We have an ambitious programme in that respect for the agricultural negotiations in the WTO context. We hope that other developed countries will match our high ambitions.

But Doha is not the end of the process and the WTO negotiations are only part of the picture. The more comprehensive picture covers the field of sustainable development - economic, social and environmental. It is clear that agriculture, and indeed fisheries, play a major role in sustainable development in both the developed and developing world. With my fellow commissioners we will be developing an approach for the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in September next year which includes those essential elements.

Finally, there is the World Food Summit: 5 years later, which has had to be postponed. We look forward to participating in this event next June.

To sum up, Chairman, Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, agriculture and food are key elements in all the ongoing steps which are being taken internationally to improve a situation which we all recognise is not acceptable. I am convinced that it is only if all players, developed and developing, work together that we can hope to bind together development objectives and trade policy, to contribute towards a more equitable world order.

Thank you very much for your attention.


For more information, please go to:

http://europa.eu.int/fischler

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