At a meeting of the Committee on Agriculture in Special Session — the Committee’s negotiation arm — on Tuesday, the recently elected chair, Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy of Türkiye, said his extensive consultations revealed members’ strong commitment to achieving an outcome with a focus on food security at the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) slated for February 2024.
He highlighted the importance of adopting a new mindset as negotiations resumed and said he planned to convene a series of seminars at end-March to gain a better understanding of the issues under negotiation.
During the meeting, the chair invited members to focus on the way forward rather than on specific negotiating topics. The chair told members that, exceptionally, the meeting should be considered as addressing all topics, including those normally addressed in dedicated sessions.
“We will need to roll up our sleeves and get down to work,” Ambassador Acarsoy said.
After conducting 37 bilateral consultations with members and group coordinators over the past two weeks, the chair expressed satisfaction with the positive momentum as negotiations resumed.
He reported a general readiness within the membership to say “no to no”, meaning to stand ready to engage with one another with an open mind and in a constructive spirit, without immediately dismissing topics of interest to other members. This constituted a good start that would allow members to be in a position to say “yes” in a year from now, he said.
Members emphasized the importance of addressing food security issues, particularly in light of current challenges, such as the war in Ukraine, the pandemic's legacy and high food price inflation. However, the chair also stressed that members had different views on how various policy measures could influence food security.
He also noted that some members thought an emergency outcome on food security at MC13 could focus on the specific needs of least developed countries and net food-importing developing countries.
The chair also noted that several members favoured addressing the environmental sustainability of agricultural trade in the negotiations, while others expressed concern that doing so could go beyond the purview of the farm talks and potentially create new trade barriers.
The importance of special and differential treatment for developing members was also stressed by many members, he added.
