Exclusive | a new journey of WTO agricultural negotiations! Developing countries: Make food security at the heart of the negotiations

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is urging members to explore new ways to reinvigorate negotiations on agriculture.

At the end of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12), regular meetings were held intensively at headquarters in Geneva before the summer break. According to the first financial reporter learned from authoritative sources, at the recent meeting of the WTO Committee on Agriculture, on the issue of WTO agricultural negotiations, developing members stressed that food security should be the core of future WTO agricultural negotiations.

At the same time, at the meeting, the parties also continued to disclose a series of the latest data on grain in Ukraine. Among them, the EU side said that about 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain were trapped in the port.

Make food security the core of the WTO's future agricultural negotiations

At the meeting, Ambassador Gloria Abraham Peralta of Costa Rica, chair of the WTO's agriculture negotiations, reviewed mc12's achievements in food and agriculture and discussed details of how to seize the momentum to restart agriculture negotiations.

In response to global food security, MC12 adopted the Ministerial Declaration on Emergency Response to Food Security (hereinafter referred to as the Declaration).

In the Declaration, member ministers expressed concern about the disruption of trade in food and agricultural products, excessive fluctuations in international food prices and related trade restrictions, stressing that trade, like domestic production, plays an important role in improving global food security.

Member ministers committed themselves to taking action to facilitate agricultural trade, improve the functioning of global food and agricultural markets, and increase long-term resilience; Reaffirming the non-implementation of export prohibitions or restrictions inconsistent with WTO rules; Ensure that the trade-distorting effect of any urgent measures to be taken to address food security issues is minimized as much as possible and in accordance with WTO rules; Encourage food aid to poor and vulnerable countries to help least developed countries and net food-importing developing countries increase their agricultural production capacity; Emphasis was placed on the importance of adequate food reserves helping members to achieve their domestic food security objectives and the importance of rapidly sharing policy information that could affect agricultural trade.

At the same time, MC12 also reached the Ministerial Decision on the Exemption of Export Prohibitions or Restrictions on Food Purchases by the World Food Programme, which commits itself not to impose export prohibitions or restrictions on the humanitarian food procurement of the World Food Programme (WFP).

This time, Peralta called on all parties to rethink strategy at the negotiating table and keep in mind the old and new challenges facing the world today, such as food insecurity and climate change.

She stressed that the modalities for resuming negotiations in the coming months will be crucial to kick-start the trajectory of the next Ministerial Conference (MC13). In this case, if a retreat is held in September, members can be helped to brainstorm and chart a new way forward.

Members also reiterated their welcome for the two tangible results achieved at MC12, which sends a positive signal that the WTO can respond to emergency crises such as food security in a timely manner.

However, many members were disappointed that they had not been able to agree on a work plan for the agricultural negotiations at MC12. One member said that the stalemate at MC12 showed the urgent need to improve negotiations and adopt new approaches.

China regretted that MC12 had not been able to agree on a work plan and stated that members needed to systematically review their experience and investigate the reasons for the failure.

China said that the current unbalanced rules for agricultural trade were formulated in the 1980s and 1990s and are not enough to cope with the profound changes in the world, especially the threat of food security crises. In addition, the push for market access and tariff reductions in some developed countries has ignored the needs of developing members for sustainable development.

China said that poor countries do not have enough funds to subsidize farmers, and the fundamental purpose of agricultural reform should be to provide effective policy tools to ensure agricultural development and food security for all members. The United States said the agricultural negotiations had been faltering for years and could not continue on the same path. The new path must reflect current challenges, including climate change, sustainable development and food security. The current approach was no longer effective and members had to identify negotiating objectives corresponding to the new challenges. And new and feasible approaches also require pragmatism.

India, Egypt, the Group of Thirty-Three (G33), the African Group and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have strongly demanded that food security be at the heart of future negotiations.

The reason for this is that many people in the world today face serious food and nutrition challenges, especially in net food-importing developing countries (NFIDCs) and least developed countries. The above-mentioned members and negotiating groups reiterated the need for a fairer trading system and increased domestic production to enhance the resilience of the sector.

These developing country members also stressed the need for more policy space to address food security issues, in particular the permanent solution to the issue of public reserves for food security (PSH) and the establishment of special safeguard mechanisms in the event of surges in imports and falling prices.

About 20 million tons of grain are trapped in Ukrainian ports

At the meeting, the parties discussed the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and food security issues, and Ukraine once again disclosed a series of data on its domestic food exports at the meeting.

Ukraine said that in recent years, Ukraine has exported an average of 50 million to 65 million tons of agricultural products. In the next three to five years, it will be difficult to quickly find alternatives to these export products. As a result of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Ukraine has lost 25% of its arable land. It is estimated that the harvest will be about 35 to 40 percent lower than in previous years. Ukrainian farmers are expected to reduce the sowing of winter crops, wheat and barley by 70 to 80 percent.

Ukraine says as many as 60 million tonnes of food are likely to remain in its country, supplying only 350,000 tonnes of agricultural products to the global market in March, up from 2.1 million tonnes in June with the support of partners. Ukraine also said that before the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, more than 90% of Ukraine's agricultural products were exported by sea.

Russia says the global economic downturn, inflation and the consequent impact on food security stem from the massive unilateral trade restrictions imposed on Russia by some WTO members. These restrictions have also led to record natural gas prices.

The representative of Russia also stated that recent studies by the International Energy Agency had shown a strong interdependence between natural gas prices and fertilizer and food prices. There is no economic basis for trying to blame Russia for the current crisis, as statistics show that the upward trend in agricultural prices began in 2021.

Combined fao and WTO data show that food price increases have reached 23 percent in 2021, breaking the relative stability that has been maintained for several years.

The main reason for this is that extreme weather affects harvests and rising energy costs. However, as the situation in Ukraine unfolded, normal commodity flows in Russia and Ukraine, two of the world's largest exporters of wheat and other staple grains, have been hampered since the end of February this year, and food prices have reached record highs.

In terms of volume, Russia and Ukraine account for a quarter of the world's wheat exports, barley and corn exports account for one-fifth, and sunflower oil exports account for more than half. The EU said about 20 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain were trapped in ports and was doing its best to help boost exports, including working with the United Nations and other countries in the Group of Seven (G7).

Representatives of Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations held a signing ceremony on the issue of exporting agricultural products from black sea ports in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, on the 22nd.

The agreement includes the establishment of a joint coordination center in Istanbul and the security of food transportation, the agreement between Russia and Ukraine that neither side will attack ships carrying agricultural products, the Istanbul joint coordination center will be jointly managed by representatives of all parties to enter and leave the port, and the three Ukrainian ports, including the port of Odessa, will begin to export grain and fertilizer.

However, just one day after the signing of the agreement, according to CCTV news, the Ukrainian Southern Combat Command said that on the morning of the 23rd, two "caliber" cruise missiles hit the port of Odessa, and two other missiles were shot down by the air defense forces. The Ukrainian military said it was Russia that carried out the missile attack.