60 WTO members support a new approach to food subsidies

Ahead of a key World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting this month, at least 60 countries, including India, China, Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia and South Africa, proposed a new method for calculating subsidies for the purchase, storage and food distribution. products, reflecting the food security of poor and developing countries.

The G33, the African Group and the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) Group submitted a joint proposal to the WTO on Tuesday, saying that a permanent solution for public storage would take into account inflation and would also be based on a reference price. current. . based on old one based on 1986-88 prices.

      They proposed allowing the export of edible grains from public stocks to countries in need of international food aid and for humanitarian purposes.

“The proposal carries great political weight and is crucial because many countries have come together at a time when global food prices are rising and they need to ensure public food stocks are maintained,” an official said, adding that it was a diverse project. group of advocates, both with small countries and large food producers.

They proposed a new way of calculating the subsidy, either taking into account the "excessive inflation" of the external reference price (PRE), or calculating the PRE based on the last five years without the highest and lowest entry for this product. . The ERP is the average price based on the reference years 1986-88 and has not been revised for decades.


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