U.N. envoy warns WTO against touching food aid

GENEVA (Reuters) – Trade negotiators must not cut food aid
as part of any World Trade Organization (WTO) deal on farm
reform because a child dies every five seconds of hunger or
related disease, a U.N. envoy said on Tuesday.

While welcoming moves to reduce rich nation farm subsidies,
which hurt poor producers by distorting markets, U.N. Special
Rapporteur on the Right to Food Jean Ziegler said that food aid
provided by international agencies must be left alone.

Some WTO members are pressing for restrictions on food aid
to be included in an accord being negotiated on liberalizing
farm trade, alleging some rivals, particularly the United
States, use it to dump excess output.

“The humanitarian aid carried forward by U.N. agencies, and
especially the WFP (the U.N. World Food Programme) and its NGO
(non-governmental organizations) partners must be excluded from
the WTO’s discussions,” the Swiss sociologist and former
Socialist Party member of parliament said in a statement.

Ziegler noted that according to the U.N, there were almost
300 million children suffering from hunger around the world.
“Every five seconds a child dies from hunger or hunger-related
diseases,” he added.

But even countries proposing reform of food aid have made
it clear at the WTO negotiations that this will not affect
emergency assistance.

Advocates of change want more aid to be bought in the
region to encourage local farmers and not disrupt markets
rather than have large amounts of grain and other commodities
shipped in by major international producers.

As part of the WTO negotiations, the European Union has
offered to put an end to direct export subsidies for farm goods
but on condition that the United States agrees to overhaul farm
aid and its system of export credits.