G20 Nations Commit Free Flow Of Food Through Covid-19-related Border Controls

Even as restrictions on travel and trade are tightening to protect territories from contamination by the   deadly novel coronavirus, world leaders have woken up to a new threat‒that of an impending food crisis particularly in nations heavily dependent on imports. On 21 April, Saudi Arabia, which has the rotating presidency of the G20, convened a virtual interface between agriculture ministers of the group and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), in which the WTO called for unrestricted trade in food, farm products and medical products.

In his virtual address at the G20 Extraordinary Virtual Agriculture Ministers Meeting, WTO Director General, D. G. Azevedo stressed the need to ensure that food continues to flow from countries with a food surplus to countries in deficit and emphasised that “three billion people depend on international trade for their food security”.

According to a WTO Press note, a joint declaration by G20 agriculture ministers followed, committing close cooperation and concrete action “to safeguard global food security and nutrition”. The joint declaration commits G20 nations to “ensure the continued flow of food, products and imports essential for agricultural and food production across borders” in line with the G20 leaders’ statement on COVID – 19 of March 26, 2020.

The statement assures guarding against food price volatility in multinational markets that threaten food security of large populations of the world, “especially the most vulnerable living in environments of low food security”. In the joint declaration, the agriculture ministers have also committed not to impose export restrictions or extraordinary taxes on food and agricultural products “purchased for non-commercial, humanitarian purposes by the World Food Programme (WFP) and other humanitarian agencies”.

The G20, as is known, is a group of 19 nations and the European Union. The group includes within it both farm products exporters and importers and comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The G 20 statement also calls for enhanced cooperation between the public and private sectors to help mobilise “rapid and innovative responses” to impacts of the pandemic on farming and the food sectors. In his statement D. G. Azevêdo emphasised that G20 leaders and trade ministers should keep international markets open for vital medical products and food. He said the WTO would monitor these measures and urged G20 governments to “lead by example on transparency”.

In his remarks Azevedo said the “COVID-19 health crisis is already a major economic and social crisis. Let’s not add a food security crisis.”