On Thursday 23 April, the European Commission announced that the EU had committed, together with 21 other members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus crisis on agricultural trade in order to ensure global food security.
“It is imperative that these measures do not adversely affect trade in agriculture and agri-food products which would ultimately have negative impacts on the food security, nutrition and health of Members and their populations”, reads their joint statement.
Among the signatories are a dozen members of the CAIRNS group, but also China and the United States: together, the signatories account for 63% of world exports and 55% of world imports of agricultural and agri-food products.
Emergency measures related to these products must be “targeted, proportionate, transparent, and temporary [...] and WTO-compliant”, warn signatories. On the other hand, they also called for the simplification of procedures to facilitate trade, in particular through the use of digital tools.
In the meantime, the members also promise to work together to explore ways to improve their pandemic preparedness.
This Canadian initiative is a first step in formalising the international response to maintain global agri-food chains. Several calls on this subject had already been made - most recently at the ‘G20 agriculture’ meeting on 21 April (see EUROPE 12471/21, 12457/13).
The statement: https://bit.ly/2RVExtZ (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)