Susilo presses for reform of agricultural trade rules

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono here on Thursday recommended that the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) should encourage its member countries to actively participate in the multilateral negotiations on the reform of agricultural trade policies.

The realization of the Doha Development Agenda was widely expected to "enable developing countries to benefit from trade in a way that would boost their development, particularly rural development and food security," said Susilo in his inauguration speech for the ministerial plenary session of the FAO's 28th Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific.

He wished the FAO to succeed in opening up opportunities for developing countries in the Doha Round.

"Thus, subsidies that distort trade and production will be reduced or eliminated. With the laying down of trade rules that are more friendly to development, economic constraints now burdening the developing countries can be overcome while imbalances in the international trade regime can be rectified," he added.

Concerning the current situation, he said that for developing countries like Indonesia, the playing field of international trade was not level.

Protectionist trade policies in the developed world had impacted negatively on developing countries, who were suffering from the downside of trade liberalization, he added.

Meanwhile, Susilo emphasized the urgency for the developing countries to boost their agricultural development, as some 800 million people in the developing world still suffered from malnutrition, every year some 10 million children died of preventable disease and some 115 million school-aged children were out of school.

He also expressed appreciation of the FAO's support for the countries grappling with the outbreak of bird flu.

"The stakes are so high that the FAO never ceases reminding the international community to give full financial and technical support to the fight against Avian Influenza," he said.

The FAO's conference, including senior officials' meeting and ministerial plenary session, is held here from Monday to Friday for agricultural ministers and senior officials from 46 Asia- Pacific countries to review the state of agriculture and food security. The topics range from food security, poverty alleviation, bird flu prevention, natural disaster containment, pesticide management, transboundary animal disease prevention to bioenergy development.

Source: Xinhua