WTO ministerial meeting to tackle food security

The 153 ministers will also discuss exchange-rate stability and related issues, anti-protectionism measures amid an expected sluggish global economy next year, and concerns over the Doha Round of trade talks.
Srirat Rastapana, director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department, said the talks on food security will be the major item on the agenda for trade ministers this year as concerns mount over skyrocketing food prices, mostly caused by natural disasters in food-producing countries this year.
An obvious example is the severe flooding in Thailand – a major global food supplier – which has destroyed more than 10 million rai of rice fields and several million rai of other types of farmland during the past few months. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has projected that prices of rice and other commodities could rise by 10 per cent next year due to the impact of flooding in Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia.
The recent declaration that the world’s population now exceeds 7 billion highlights the ever-increasing demand for food.
The WTO’s 8th Ministerial Conference (MC8), scheduled to take place in Geneva from December 15-18, will also discuss measures to strengthen the WTO system, as member states appear to have all but accepted that hopes are slim of concluding a multilateral agreement from the so-called Doha Round of talks in the next few years. Some countries have urged the WTO to launch a new platform for negotiations, including having a plurilateral agreement among a majority of countries, rather than wait for consensus agreement from all member states, or seeking an “early harvest” agreement to proceed on some issues.
 Discussions will also continue on issues such as temporary waiver of customs taxes for e-commerce transactions.