Brussels, 08/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The EU should stop subsidising the export of agricultural products and reduce its dependence on soy imports used in the production of feeds for livestock, a number of organisations, including CONCORD and European Coordination Via Campesina, argued on Wednesday 7 March. A joint statement was adopted ahead of European Commission discussions on the international aspects of the common agricultural policy (CAP) on 12 March.
The organisations say that, despite successive reforms, the EU continues to export agricultural products at prices below European costs of production. There are still some export refunds that the EU uses in the Doha Round (WTO discussions on trade liberalisation) as tools for negotiation, “but the main part of the problem comes now from exported products coming from EU farms benefiting from direct payments”, say the signatories of the statement. In addition, they lament, since 1992, the CAP and the WTO have been allowing the downstream sector (agri-industry, retailers) to buy European agricultural products at prices below their costs of production, and export companies to export them. Thus, the downstream sector benefits also, indirectly, from the direct payments, which allow farmers to sell their products below the production costs.
“The international legitimacy of the CAP is, therefore, still questioned and the CAP reform proposal for 2014-2020 does not tackle this issue adequately”, state CONCORD and Via Campesina. The organisations suggest, therefore, that the EU must recognise that the rising global demand for food “does not legitimise subsidising European exports”. The objective of EU agricultural and trade policies is not for the EU to feed the world. On the contrary, they must enable developing countries to feed themselves, and respect and protect the human right to food. The statement also calls for a change in current international trade rules (WTO agreement dating from 1994) so that: - exporting products at prices below their production costs is no longer authorised; - Southern countries are allowed to protect their markets from imports that are too cheap.
Around 1% of the CAP budget goes on export refunds: this equates to some €430 million. The organisations recommend that: - the EU should prevent any product from being exported below the European costs of production (if an exported product has benefited from support, the value of the support should be added to its export value); - the EU must honour its commitment made at the WTO ministerial in Hong Kong 2005 to phase out all export subsidies, even if the Doha Round is not concluded, or there must be no export of specific products to any countries where the production of that product is important for food security and people's livelihoods.
CONCORD and Via Campesina call on the EU to decrease the high dependency (80%) of its livestock sector on soy imports from Latin America (as the European Parliament requested in its 2011 resolution on food security), for example, by encouraging protein crops, such as legumes, through compulsory crop rotation or rural development measures which promote this kind of crop. They also say that EU legislation should contain obligations on the Commission to monitor the effects of the CAP on food security and agriculture in developing countries. (LC/transl.rt)