Riyadh [Saudi Arabia], April 22 (ANI): The G20 Agriculture Ministers on Tuesday reaffirmed the importance of ensuring the continuous flow of food and agricultural products to safeguard global food security and nutrition.
“We commit to cooperating closely and taking concrete actions to safeguard global food security and nutrition. We reaffirm the importance of working to ensure the continued flow of food, products, and input essential for agricultural and food production across borders in line with our Leaders’ Statement on COVID-19 of March 26, 2020,” read an official statement following the Agriculture Ministers meeting. The ministers held a virtual meeting on Tuesday where they agreed to guard against any “unjustified restrictive measures that could lead to excessive food price volatility in international markets and threaten the food security of large proportions of the world population.”
“We agree that emergency measures in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic must be targeted, proportionate, transparent, and temporary and that they do not create unnecessary barriers to trade or disruption to global food supply chains, and are consistent with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules,” the joint statement read.
The leaders also agreed “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.”
They further called on other members to continue providing timely and reliable information on global food market fundamentals to help markets, countries, and consumers make informed choices.
While acknowledging the critical role of the private sector in food systems, they called “for enhanced cooperation between the public and private sectors to help mobilize rapid and innovative responses to impacts of this pandemic on the agriculture and food sectors.”
“We stress the need to strengthen the sustainability and resilience of food systems globally, including to future shocks from disease and pest outbreaks, and to the global challenges that drive these shocks,” it read.
Lastly, they agreed to cooperate on several issues for a broader G20 agriculture and food agenda.
