Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 5 • Number 9 • 13th May 2005

WTO Food Aid Disciplines Could Increase Hunger, Warns UN

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In a speech to developing country WTO delegates, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director James Morris on 9 May warned that improperly drafted rules on food aid could contribute to hunger in the world’s poorest countries. The WFP was “absolutely opposed” to limiting food aid to cash, he said, a proposal that had been put forward during WTO agricultural liberalisation negotiations on 13-18 April by the ECU, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Thailand. In negotiations mandated by the WTO July Package on food aid that causes “commercial displacement”, these countries argued that food aid should be largely restricted to cash grants to prevent it from being used as a channel for disposing of agricultural surpluses generated from subsidised production. Instead, new disciplines would require purchases to be made locally or in the region where the aid is to be given in order to avoid hurting local production. While the EC says that these disciplines would halt US exports of surplus subsidised products in the guise of bilateral aid programmes, the US counters that EU agricultural subsidies are the real problem. The cash grant proposal is supported by some recipient countries such as Uganda, which have seen poor farmers displaced from local markets by subsidised agricultural surpluses that entered the country as food aid. Morris, however, said that judgements on the legitimacy of food aid should be based on what it is used for, such as for emergencies or for vulnerable groups, and not the source of the aid. “The simple truth is that food aid commitments and deliveries are nose-diving while WTO is discussing their disciplines”, he noted.

“WFP Chief Urges WTO To Support Food Aid In Doha Round,” WFP PRESS RELEASE, 9 May 2005; “Move by WTO ‘is threat to food aid,’” FT, 9 May 2005; “UN Comments On WTO Food Aid Controls,” AP, 9 May 2005; “UN raises eyebrows as WTO farm talks,” ECONOMIC TIMES, 10 May 2005.