Dhaka, Jan 9, 2008: The government is taking the country’s food security issues to WTO negotiations in Geneva demanding firm, bilateral commitment of food assistance under its ‘safety box’ provision to the LDCs, official sources said, reports BSS.

The safety box provision was agreed in the Hong Kong declaration of the WTO summit in December 2005 as a response mechanism to supply shortage and rising food prices that may arise when developed countries would cut back subsidy on agricultural exports.

Although the WTO negotiation is still in progress under contesting stands taken by the developed and developing nations, mainly on agricultural subsidy and non-agricultural market access, the food security issue has become all the more important to Bangladesh at this moment.

Two floods and a cyclone within a single year have caused huge damages to the country’s food grains production making the people more vulnerable to supply crisis.

So the government is working out a position paper over the recent weeks asking its representative in Geneva to firmly deal with the food safety box issue.

The sources said the government seeks to make sure that food aid commitments from donors come as binding and on bilateral basis during emergency.

The world is already experiencing the impact of the surging food prices though it was anticipated to be taking place after the withdrawal of the agricultural subsidy by the developed countries like the USA, EU, Japan and Australia.

Creating the safety box and its delivery mechanism have thus become the critical issues in this background and Bangladesh wants to see its modality clearly spelled out in the final WTO agreement.

The parties are trying to strike a deal in the next few months in Geneva in a desperate move before leaving it pending until the next US presidential election in November this year.

But there is a grim chance for its success, experts feared as the US administration may not be ready to make any concession to negotiation in the election year.

The sources said food aid may be treated as emergency and non-emergency aid. The non-emergency aid may be processed by countries or donor agencies collectively making the pledge on voluntary basis.

But in an emergency situation, it does not work well like the bitter experiences that Bangladesh is currently facing in mobilizing adequate supply offer to stabilize the domestic market.

Here donors should come forward with bilateral offer on firm commitment basis, not in the form of lose pledge, the sources said.

Bangladesh is trying to make this mechanism clear in the final negotiation now in progress under the WTO negotiating dealing with agricultural issues, the sources said.

@ The Bangladesh Journal