WTO DG calls on G20 to ease trade in food, feed and fertilisers – WTO

As the World Trade Organisation (WTO) released a report reviewing trade measures imposed by the G20 on goods between mid-October 2022 and mid-May 2023, DG Okonjo-Iweala welcomed moves by G20 economies to facilitate imports, while urging them to lift measures restricting exports of food, feed, and fertilisers in particular, according to a WTO news release.

Reducing the number and trade coverage of export restrictions for these products would “help dampen the price volatility that makes life harder for people around the world,” the DG said.

G20 agriculture ministers met in Hyderabad, India, from 16-17 June, with an “outcome document and chair’s summary” from the meeting reiterating the commitments on food security that were undertaken at the WTO’s twelfth ministerial conference in June 2022, including a decision not to impose export restrictions on food bought for humanitarian purposes by the World Food Programme.

Meanwhile, ahead of the 21-22 June meeting of the WTO negotiating body on agriculture, the United Kingdom put forward a negotiating submission making the case that WTO members should pursue more focused discussions on the food security impact of export restrictions on agricultural products.

Tags: food, goods, G20, trade measures, World Trade Organisation, exports, WTO, Feed, imports, fertilisers