WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(01)/ST/95
11 November 2001
(01-5684)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fourth Session
Doha, 9 - 13 November 2001Original:  English
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
Statement by Mr Hartwig de Haen
Assistant Director-General
(Speaking as an Observer)
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is pleased to address this
Fourth Ministerial Conference.  We note the emphasis being placed on the particular concerns of
developing countries and we would like to share with you our assessment and suggestions with food
security and rural development in view.
One of the major challenges facing global society at the dawn of this new millennium is the
reduction of hunger throughout the world and the achievement of food security for all - at the national
and household levels.  Appropriate rules of the multilateral trading system to govern agricultural
production and trade are among the essential instruments for promoting food security and rural
development.  The Agreement on Agriculture was an important step in this regard.
I would like to make two points briefly.  One is the global challenge facing the world's
agriculture;  the other is the way ahead, i.e. what needs to be done in the trade context to meet the
challenge.
The challenge
The FAO estimates that at the turn of the millennium, 815 million people were food insecure.
They do not get enough food to lead a normal, healthy and active life.  Of these, 777 million live in
developing countries, 27 million in countries in transition and 11 million in industrialized countries.
While there has been some progress in reducing the absolute number of hungry people, this is not
happening fast enough to achieve the World Food Summit target of halving the number of
undernourished not later than by the year 2015.  At the current rate, it would take more than 60 yearsto reach this target.
Chronic undernourishment is an extreme ma nifestation of poverty.  Hunger and food
insecurity are both the result of poverty and its cause.  Eliminating hunger is not only a moral and
social imperative but also a good investment for economic growth.
Unlike most developed countries where excessive levels of support and protection continue to
distort production and trade, agriculture in developing countries is often undervalued in policy setting.
This also leads to the under-provision of public goods which exacerbates current problems of rural
poverty, food security, environmental degradation, uncontrolled rural-urban migration and social
instability that most developing countries are facing.WT/MIN(01)/ST/95
Page 2
To combat hunger and food insecurity two things are essential;  one, the undernourished must
have economic access to food through opportunities to earn adequate incomes;  two, it is necessary to
ensure the physical availability of food supplies fr om either domestic production or imports, or both.
With 70 percent of the world's extremely poor and food-insecure people living in rural areas,
the role of agriculture, which is the predominant economic activity in rural areas, is crucial in the
eradication of poverty and food insecurity. The rural poor depend on agriculture both for their
incomes and food entitlement.  Thus chronic food insecurity can be addressed most effectively
through policies that tap the huge agricultural potential of developing countries to increase
agricultural productivity, rural incomes and food production.
The contribution of food import to food security, while crucial, is limited by the foreign
exchange earning capacity of developing countries.  Thus, closing the food gap through commercial
imports is not always a realistic possibility for most countries that have poor prospects for substantial
increases in foreign exchange earnings and/or al ready face heavy external debt burdens.  Nor is
chronic dependence on external food aid a sustainable solution.
In sum, for many developing countries, particularly Low Income Food Deficit Countries
(LIPDC) an essential option for closing the food gap is to increase agricultural productivity and
domestic food production, and enhance the ability of countries to import food by strengthening their
export earning possibilities.
Related to the challenge of reducing hunger is the challenge of ensuring the quality and safety
of food, of plant and animal health, in particular as globalization and liberalized agricultural trade
increase the trans-boundary transmission of related risks.  Finding solutions to these challenges are of
equal importance to rich and poor countries.  As recognized by the SPS/TBT Agreements, it is
important that measures taken by counties to address these risks are science-based and internationallyharmonized.
The way forward
In the FAO's view, the objective of reducing hunger and alleviating poverty through
sustainable agriculture and rural development is not incompatible with the goal of establishing "a fair
and market-oriented agricultural trading system".  The FAO hopes that the current negotiationsrecognize the importance of food security and rural development.  In particular, we would recommend
the following:
1. The Ministerial Conference may wish to endorse the following definition of food
security accepted by the 1996 World Food Summit:  "Food Security at the individual,household, national, regional and global level will be achieved when all people, at all
times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food to
meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life."  This
definition could provide guidance in the search for ways and means of taking into
account food security concerns.
2. Substantial progress is urgently needed in reducing tariff peaks and tariff escalation
which will provide opportunities to developing countries to benefit from high value
processed products.
3. Consideration needs to be given to policies which would allow developing countries
to protect small and resource-poor farmers from the adverse consequences of
temporary import surges, particularly subsidized products.WT/MIN(01)/ST/95
Page 3
4. Developing countries would need maximum flexibility regarding measures to
increase the domestic supply of basic foodstuffs.
5. Until agricultural protection and support have been substantially reduced in
developed countries, developing countries should not be required to further reducebound tariffs or domestic subsidies.
6. It is also important that ways and means be found to effectively implement the
Marrakesh Ministerial Decision on measures concerning the possible negative effects
of the Reform Programme on the least-developed and net food-importing developing
countries.
7. As regards SPS/TBT standards, and as provided for in the related Agreement greater
assistance needs to be given to the developing countries to allow them to participate
more actively in standard-setting bodies and to build capacity to meet those standards.
This would be in both their domestic and trade interest.  In this context, I wish to refer
to the joint statement of Heads of the FAO, WHO, OIE, WTO and the World Bank.
8. Finally, I wish to draw attention to the fact that last week the 31st FAO Conference
adopted the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources of Food and Agriculture
(PGRFA), a legally binding treaty which makes provisions for the conservation and
sustainable use of PGRFA as well as for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefitsarising from their use, in harmony with the Convention of Biological Diversity.  It
includes a number of issues where cooperation, complementarity and synergy with
the WTO in general and TRIPS in particular would be essential.
Once again, I wish to emphasize the importance of  investment in agriculture to improve food
security.  Evidence clearly shows that countries which decreased the number of undernourished in the
1990s have substantially increased capital stock is agriculture whereas capital stock declined in those
where the number of hungry increased.
1n conclusion, the FAO is determined to continue to play its role and contribute to the
international efforts to achieving the twin goals of reducing hunger and poverty, on the one hand, and
moving towards a "fair and. market-oriented agricultural trading system", on the other.
__________