Food aid advocates and U.S. senators have said that a line of text in the proposed World Trade Organization's Doha Round trade agreement, which could potentially be approved this week, is threatening international in-kind food aid programs — those whereby governments ship corn, wheat and other food items to countries in need.
The line states that food aid should not be used "as a mechanism for surplus disposal and to prevent commercial displacement."
Coalition for Food Aid Executive Director Ellen Levinson, however, said the Food and Agriculture Organization, for instance, considers food aid to be surplus disposal "even if it is purchased with appropriated funds and not subject to forfeitures by farmers or explicit purchases to remove commodities from the market when prices are low."
Because of the text's language, she said, the agreement would appear to ask for the elimination of all food product aid to the United Nations and humanitarian agencies. She said it remained unclear whether cash contributions for the purchase of food would still be allowed under the agreement, but she said she believed it would.
Some U.S. lawmakers, however, have expressed concern over the cash donations instead of in-kind food aid, arguing that Congress is not likely to appropriate money to buy as much as food as the U.S. Agriculture Department obtains through its programs.
According to Agweek, U.S. officials have said they will discuss the agreement's plan during the WTO meeting, which is scheduled to end Friday in Geneva. WTO officials want to reach a trade deal among the member countries under the Doha Round by then (Jerry Hagstrom, Agweek/Grand Forks Herald, July 26).
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