Luxembourg Calls for Collective Action on Food Security

Luxembourg's Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Jean Asselborn, took part in the first day of the twelfth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which is being held from Sunday 12 to Wednesday 15 June 2022 in Geneva.

The twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) is an opportunity to reflect on the challenges facing the multilateral trading system, including the reform of the WTO and the responses to be made to the disruptions in world trade caused by the pandemic and Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

In his speech, Minister Asselborn first noted how much the world has changed since the last WTO Ministerial Conference, held in 2017 in Buenos Aires: "Indeed, we are facing multiple crises whose destabilising effects will continue to haunt us for years to come: the persistent climate crisis, the questioning of multilateralism, a pandemic that affects all aspects of our existence and all sectors of activity of our societies, and now an illegal war that aggravates a disastrous picture”.

Given this particular context, and in particular the war of aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine as well as its consequences for food security and the prices of energy and food products, Minister Asselborn underlined that the WTO members "cannot confine themselves to considering the WTO as a simple technical organization which deals with the rules governing trade, since attacks on the territorial integrity and political independence of any State concern us all and cannot leave the WTO indifferent”.

“By targeting food supply and production, Russia has shown its intention to cripple the Ukrainian agricultural economy. By the blockade of the Black Sea the Russian Armed Forces are preventing Ukrainian grain exports from reaching world markets and causing economic turmoil,” Minister Asselborn noted.

In this regard, Minister Asselborn opposed any narrative aimed at attributing negative consequences to international sanctions on agricultural production in Ukraine, and by extension on world food security: "On the contrary, it is the war waged by the Russia which is responsible for the rise in prices and the shortage of commodities on the world market".

Minister Asselborn then stressed the need to make CM12 a success in order to reaffirm the relevance of the WTO and the multilateral track: "It is up to us to act in order to guarantee open and transparent trade, strong rules, resilient markets and fewer trade distortions. For Luxembourg, it is therefore a priority to conclude the agreement on fisheries subsidies - the sustainability of our oceans is at stake - and to promote the links between trade and environmental objectives. Likewise, we call upon to advance on agricultural issues and respond to food security challenges – taking coordinated action in areas such as export restrictions and transparency. We must do our part in the pandemic response, including universal and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments".

Finally, Minister Asselborn added that it is necessary “to launch without delay discussions on the reform of the WTO, including for a settlement of disputes fully operational and finally to extend the moratorium on electronic commerce”.

The inaugural session of MC12 was preceded by a solidarity event with Ukraine, organised by the European Union (EU), in the presence of the Deputy Minister of Commerce of Ukraine, Taras Kachka. On the sidelines of CM12, European ministers responsible for international trade also met for a coordination meeting.