DG Okonjo-Iweala at World Food Forum: Trade is vital for ensuring food security
Speaking at the opening plenary of the World Food Forum on 14 October in Rome, hosted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala underscored the crucial role of trade and the WTO in addressing the challenges of farming and food security. “A free, fair, open, and predictable multilateral trading system and modernized trade rules [provided by the WTO], is critical to building an agrifood system that can deliver good food to the world’s people today and in the future,” she emphasized.
The Director-General recalled the strengthened partnership between the WTO and the FAO in the areas of food and agriculture. She highlighted the WTO’s ongoing efforts to update trade rules, stressing that the multilateral trading system must be complemented by domestic policies that reduce distortions and enhance competition. She pointed to the importance of “policies that provide essential public goods to farmers such as research, pest and disease control, efficient water management, and extension services that are needed to improve productivity and sustainability.”
