The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have agreed to strengthen their cooperation to promote international food trade and safety in ways that improve peoples’ nutrition and allow small-scale producers to have better access to international agriculture markets.
Their effort was made known in a joint statement made available to our correspondent by the agencies during an event at the United Nations food agency’s headquarters Tuesday.
In his remarks to his WTO counterpart, Roberto Azevêdo, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, said the agency looks forward to ensuring fair trade of agricultural and food products through this stronger (FAO-WTO) cooperation.
He continued that on the one hand, trade is likely to play an increasing role in meeting the growing demand from food-deficit countries. He also noted that greater trade openness may undermine the capacity of local people to produce their own food.
Graziano da Silva warned that failure to reach a balanced solution on issues relating to production and trade of agricultural products could derail the international community’s recently agreed sustainable development goal to eradicate world hunger.
For his part, WTO’s Director-General, Mr. Roberto Azevêdo, stressed that his agency seeks to ensure that the global trading system works in a way which supports growth and development and allows people to access the goods and services that they need.” including food.
“When I visit developing countries, especially in Africa, business people tell me about the difficulties they face in meeting the required standards,” he said, adding that it is essential to provide capacity building for producers in developing countries, an area of work where his Organisation and FAO are seeking to deepen their collaboration.
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