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Press release by Germanwatch, Euronatur and EED
Geneva, September 7, 2004: The three German based non-governmental environment and development organisations Euronatur, Germanwatch and the EED (German Protestant Church Development Service) presented today during a Workshop organised at the WMO building the results of a field trip of WTO negotiators from developing countries and international civil society organisations to Southern Germany. Aim of the field trip was to learn more about the European Unions Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidy schemes, especially to study different forms of subsidies and support programmes financed under the CAP for nature conservation and other environmental purposes. It was discussed which forms of support might be justified in future trade negotiations and which must be seen as problematic from a developmental or environmental perspective.
Lupino J. Lazaro, WTO negotiator from the Philippines criticises: "Subsidies are really destorting largely the markets. In the long run, if we are targeting a fair and market-oriented economy the subsidies should be done away with, starting with the export subsidies which is largely given by the EU and then domestic subsidies."
Several elements of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) can have a negative impact on world agricultural markets. In the forefront of the criticism are export subsidies that can distort local markets in developing countries, causing harm to small agricultural producers and endangering food security. In the negotiations of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), many other forms of subsidies paid to producers in the developed countries are under scrutiny. Some of them cause or contribute to negative effects in developing countries, and some can also contribute to the degradation of the environment in the North and the loss of natural resources for future generations.
During the field trip, different farms were visited that get varying parts of their income from subsidy schemes of the EU for different purposes. In the visited area of the black forest mountains the group could recognize that subsidies for keeping agricultural production on steep hills are important elements of local nature conservation: "Without the subsidies most of the farmers here couldn´t survive. But extensive pasture farming, in the way we practice it with our old and local cattle breed "Hinterwälder" is the only way to preserve the typical man made landscape of the region and thus also very important for nature conservation" states Veronika Dietsche, farmers woman from the Black Forest. Matthias Meissner, representative from Euronatur adds: "Rural infrastructure would break away, natural biodiversity, which was historically supported by non-intensive agriculture in the area would be at risk, without subsidies. We need subsidy schemes that support environmentally friendly production systems and keep biodiversity and rural areas intact".
The new CAP allows decoupling farm support from actual production, and gives farmers the possibility to shift production to other crops and to react to market signals. "The EU CAP reform has some potential to improve the negative impacts of the CAP, particularly of the export subsidies", says Rudolf Buntzel-Cano, Commissioner for World Food Matters of the German Church Development Service EED. "But only if it is implemented in a way that helps to reduce the structural surplus the CAP is generating." The national implementation of the new CAP in the EU will vary a lot. The organisations therefore presented first ideas and proposals in which direction the implementation should go. "The EU should go further with its ongoing agricultural policy reform. The WTO Framework Agreement on Agriculture of July 31st, 2004, has widely ignored the concerns of Developing Countries for development. But there is still enough space to correct these basic imbalances in the post-framework negotiations", recommends Buntzel-Cano.
Still, it is difficult to know if the new elements of the CAP reform will be significant enough to reduce the negative effects that CAP so far has abroad. "We need a more open debate on the potential positive and negative impacts of the reform and of the subsidy schemes. And we need answers that allow small farmers in North and South to stay in production and to reduce potential environmental harm", resumes Michael Windfuhr, president of the environment and development NGO Germanwatch.
This workshop was financed by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) with funds from the Federal Ministry for the Environment and the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation.
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