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II. WORLD FOOD AND AGRICULTURE SITUATION (continued)
II. SITUATION MONDIALE DE L'ALIMENTATION ET DE L'AGRICULTURE (suite)
II. SITUACION MUNDIAL DE LA AGRICULTURA Y LA ALIMENTACION (continuación)

6. Report of the Tenth Session of the Committee on World Food Security (Rome, 10-17 April 1985) (continued)
6. Rapport de la dixième session du Comité de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale (Rome, 10-17 avril 1985) (suite)
6. Informe del Décimo período de sesiones del Comité de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial (Roma, 10-17 de abril de 1985) (continuación)

6.1 World Food Security Compact (continued)
6.1 Pacte mondial de sécurité alimentaire (suite)
6.1 Pacto sobre la Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial (continuación)

C. KAREKEZI (Rwanda): Après examen du document révisé du Pacte mondial de sécurité alimentaire présenté par le Secrétariat, ma délégation veut tout simplement déclarer qu'elle appuie ce projet de pacte, qui n'est qu'une suite logique des recommandations de ce Conseil, visant à l'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire des pays en développement avec le concours des pays développés.

Les mesures proposées rencontrent la volonté politique des pays qui ont déjà commencé la mise en application de ce plan. Cependant, les efforts nationaux sont restés insuffisants face aux travaux à réaliser. Par exemple les paysans ont à souffrir du manque d'intrants. Ils ne parviennent pas à s'en procurer. C'est dans ce cadre que les pays développés devraient nous aider pour atteindre l'objectif fixé d'augmentation de produits alimentaires dans les pays en développement.

En terminant mon intervention, je félicite les représentants des pays développés qui ont approuvé ce Pacte et invite ceux qui ont encore des réserves à réexaminer le fond du document, car nous pensons que c'est dans le cadre de ce document que nous pouvons trouver les mesures destinées à améliorer l'état nutritionnel des pays en développement. Les crises qui sont actuellement permanentes dans les pays en développement ne pourront jamais être résolues si les pays en développement restent seuls.

Pour cette raison je demande aux pays qui ont encore des doutes de réexaminer leurs réserves comme certains l'ont déjà fait, par exemple la Suisse.

A.K. OSUBAN (Uganda): I wish to place on record the position of my delegation. Uganda participated in the 10th Session of the Committee on World Food Security, and in regard to the World Food Security Compact our delegation then accepted the Compact as presented. I am therefore taking the floor merely to reiterate the support that we have given, because it merely reaffirms the principle of banishing hunger from the face of this earth.

A.M. KHALED (Yemen, People's Democratic Republic of) (original language Arabic): First of all I would like on behalf of my delegation to thank the Secretariat, and also the Director-General. They have examined the question over a long period and have drawn up this World Food Security Compact; therefore they deserve our congratulations. I would also like to congratulate Mr Bettino Craxi for his statement, and for the intervention of the Italian Government - and in particular for their generosity concerning the African crisis. I agree with everything that has been said in favour of this World Food Security Compact, because it is the basis for any measures aimed at ensuring that there is world food security.

Many opinions have been expressed. Some have expressed reservations, and this is quite natural, deriving from the nature of things. However, some countries have been able to accept the World Food Security Compact as drafted, in spite of slightly differing opinions, whereas other countries have not accepted this Compact, and we deplore this because in fact this Compact is simply the result of a review of several general principles and several conventions and has been derived from several other agreements, and is not of an obligatory or compulsory nature. That is why my delegation once again would like to give its favourable view of this World Food Security Compact. We would like this to be sent on to the Conference for approval.

T.D. DA COSTA (Sao Tomé-et-Principe): Monsieur le Président, en prenant la parole pour la première fois, je tiens à vous assurer de la considération de ma délégation. Comme plusieurs délégations l'ont déjà fait, je voudrais remercier le Directeur général et les membres du Secrétariat pour l'excellent travail qu'ils ont réalisé.


Ma délégation fait siens les objectifs du Pacte mondial de sécurité alimentaire, et souhaite que ce texte soit envoyé à la Conférence. Pour terminer, je veux lancer un appel aux délégations qui ont émis des réserves pour qu'elles reconsidèrent leur position.

V. ISARANKURA (Thailand): My delegation has listened to the deliberations on the World Food Security Compact with great interest. In fact, my delegation has given support to the Compact since the beginning when the idea was brought up to the Committee on World Food Security by the Director-General.

Unfortunately the idea brought up and the outcome at present are quite different from what was proposed to the Committee at the beginning. The Compact proposals as we thought were to be in the form of compilation of decisions and resolutions made in the field of food and agriculture by various international fora which does not require an annual commitment. For us, we consider that the Compact would be very helpful in paving ways for our work in the future, and would avoid repetition of our work in trying to reach the same goal.

However, we do not want to bring up any more debate on this matter, and owing to the spirit of compromise and cooperation we have to support the Compact as it is, even though this Compact could be further strengthened if it would be as proposed first by the Director-General, and we endorse what has been said by the distinguished delegate from Indonesia.

R. SEVCOVIC (Czechoslovakia): The Director-General's Report on the World Food Situation, and especially the parts regarding the critical situation in Africa and other effected countries of the world, show the importance of a System of World Food Security.

I would like to emphasize three points. First, in connection with world food security one can never sufficiently repeat that security is closely related to the programme of international tensions and the need to stop the feverish accumulation of arms. The second, for the indisputable significance of the FAO Early Warning System for any multilateral, bilateral action, fast and accurate information is needed, and the third, coming back to the discussion on Africa, the Rehabilitation Programmes are extremely important in this context. We believe that food security contributes to the resolving of basic economic programmes and the progressive building-up of a structure of agriculture and food production and self-reliance. In that connection, however, I should like to say that our country considers the food aid only as a temporary solution which does not eradicate the basic causes of hunger and malnutrition.

We have studied carefully the improved version of the draft text of the document World Food Security Compact and we followed the discussion to this issue with great interest. There are many aspects of world food security which have not yet been fully established despite the Resolution passed by the World Food Conference in 1974. We are persuaded that the draft text of the World Food Security Compact would contribute in a positive way to the effective solving of the world food security problems. The new version of the draft document has a progressive character in comparison with its former version. We consider very topical and important, especially paragraph 4 of the General Principles which says that food should not be used as a means of exerting political pressure either within countries or internationally. The general keeping of this principle will contribute to the improving of the food programmes in all developing countries. On the other side we agree with some comments and supplements already said by some delegations regarding some results in the document.

M. FRANCISCI DI BASCHI (Italie): Simplement pour vous demander Monsieur le Président de donner la parole au représentant de la Communauté Européenne qui pourra illustrer au Conseil la position commune, soit la position de la Communauté Européenne en tant que telle soit la position des pays membres.

G. DESEQUELLES (Observateur de la Communauté économique européenne): Après les déclarations des états membres de la CEE permettez-moi de vous faire part de la position commune à laquelle sont parvenus la Communauté et ses 10 états membres. Compte tenu des observations que nous avions formulées lors du Comité de la sécurité alimentaire. Nous aurions souhaité que le texte révisé porte davantage attention à certaines questions, notamment au problème démographique comme l'ont d'ailleurs reconnu les ministres du Conseil mondial de l'alimentation lors de la llème session du CM à Paris la semaine dernière. Ils ont en effet souligné, je cite, qu'il convient d'accorder une plus grande attention au problème démographique dans le contexte économique et social propre à chaque pays. Nous notons par ailleurs que des modifications ont été apportées au présent texte par rapport au projet soumis lors du Comité de la sécurité alimentaire et qui vont dans le sens souhaité par la CEE.


C'est pourquoi, devant la non-satisfaction dramatique des besoins alimentaires dans de nombreux pays du monde, en espérant que ce Pacte mobilisera toutes les énergies et afin de ne pas retarder les travaux, la CEE et ses états membres marquent leur accord sur le Pacte mondial de sécurité alimentaire en souhaitant qu'un consensus puisse se réaliser.

H. CARRION (Observador de Nicaragua): Deseo simplemente ser consecuente con la posición de mi país tomada en el noveno período de sesiones del C.S.A. en que aprobamos el proyecto de texto presentado para nuestra consideración. Vemos que actualmente las modificaciones sugeridas por la Secretaría y el Director General de la FAO incluidas en el texto que tenemos ante nosotros demuestra gestos positivos y conciliatorios que tratan de lograr el más amplio consenso de este Consejo. Deseamos felicitar en este sentido al Gobierno de Suiza por haber levantado sus reservas al Pacto, lo que demuestra su espíritu de cooperación internacional en el campo alimentario.

Deseamos reconocer el mensaje tan positivo del Presidente del Consejo de Ministros de Italia, Honorable Craxi, en boca del embajador de Italia ante la FAO señor Francisci di Baschi. Esperamos que la actitud positiva que se ha demostrado en este Consejo, por la gran mayoría al menos, en relación a este Pacto Alimentario haga reconsiderar a aquellos que todavía tienen reservas para poder lograr una unanimidad de esa aprobación en la Conferencia. Por último, deseamos coincidir con el contenido de las intervenciones tanto de México como de Senegal y Cuba de esta mañana.

P. WIESMANN (Observer for Switzerland): I will be very brief but I feel that as the representative of Switzerland I owe this session a short intervention. As you know my country is figuring in the document in front of you, and it was also mentioned by the Director-General in his introductory speech on Monday.

During the discussions of the first draft Compact in the CFS, the Swiss delegation was quite active making comments, asking questions and proposing alterations. We were declaring that we could go along with the idea of a compact but would like to see its content and wording improved. Our decision to make a reservation was therefore not out of fundamental disagreement but due to the fact that we felt that we were not given the opportunity for a fruitful dialogue, be it for reasons of time or for any other reasons. The decision of my Government to withdraw the reservation was done out of the desire to de-block the situation and to offer our willingness for a constructive dialogue. We are therefore very pleased and thankful that the Director-General has submitted to the Council this new revised text in which we find quite a few proposals we made during the CFS. We would therefore like to state that we can go along with the new text.

At the same time we would like to endorse the views expressed by the delegate of the Federal Republic of Germany, of the United Kingdom and of others, expressing the wish that the Secretariat seriously studies the possibility of further elaborating on the World Food Security Compact, hoping that thereby a total consensus could be reached at the Conference in November.

Mme M. LOURDES DUARTE (Observateur du Cap-Vert): Le projet de Pacte mondial de sécurité alimentaire présenté par le Directeur général sur demande du Comité de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale à sa 9ème session traduit vraiment l'engagement moral de se battre pour la sécurité alimentaire mondiale. Son texte, très simple, n'imposant pas d'obligations ou engagements ni financiers ni juridiques, s'adresse à tous dans le sens de mobiliser l'appui et les initiatives en faveur de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale de façon que tout être humain ait accès aux aliments essentiels dont il a besoin. Nous réaffirmons notre appui à ce texte tel qu'il est pour qu'il soit accepté par consensus.

Nous félicitons le représentant de l'Italie pour la teneur de son message et aussi le représentant du gouvernement suisse d'avoir retiré sa réserve et les autres délégués dont l'intervention a été dans le sens d'une approbation sans réserve.

Pour terminer nous déclarons être d'avis que son adoption, l'année où on célébrera le 40ème anniversaire de la FAO et le lOème du Comité de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale, serait particulièrement opportune,traduisant la solidarité de toute la communauté internationale avec les souffrances et l'insécurité alimentaire de millions de personnes.


G. GANSORE (Observateur du Burkina Faso): Le Burkina Faso en tant qu'observateur tient à joindre sa voix à celle de plusieurs délégués pour apporter son appui au texte comme notre délégué l'avait fait lors de la dernière session du Comité de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale. Notre délégation ne comprend pas vraiment l'attitude des pays qui émettent des réserves sur le texte du Pacte. Curieusement les pays qui émettent des réserves sont ceux-là mêmes qui depuis le début de nos travaux n'ont cessé d'indiquer les efforts que déploient leur gouvernement en faveur de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale.

Oui, nous sommes d'accord qu'il faut des actes à la place de rhétorique mais si l'on éprouve des difficultés à adopter un tel texte qui ne comporte aucune contrainte juridique ou financière, qui nous rappelle seulement nos devoirs, qu'en sera-t-il lorsqu'il faudra passer aux actes qui, eux, nécessitent des moyens financiers. Nous sommes sceptiques sur les arguments que développent ceux qui émettent des réserves sur le texte du Pacte qui, rappelons-le,a surtout un caractère moral.

D. YOMAN (Observateur de la Côte-d'Ivoire): En tant qu'observateur à cette session je dois déclarer ici la surprise de mon pays. En effet, les délibérations du dernier Comité de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale avaient conclu à la présentation telle quelle du premier projet de Pacte avec les réserves de quelques pays et la réaction d'autres face à ces mêmes réserves. Nous pensons donc qu'à ce Conseil, les Etats Membres réexamineraient à nouveau les conclusions du CSA pour se prononcer. Notre surprise a donc été d'être mis en face d'une nouvelle mouture du projet de Pacte.

Après les explications données par les membres du Secrétariat et connaissant le sentiment profond du Directeur général qui a toujours voulu qu'ici un consensus sanctionne nos travaux, nous nous sommes inclinés et avons parfaitement compris le sens de cette démarche même si le texte actuel modifié a sans,conteste été rendu beaucoup plus faible. Toutefois la délégation de Côte-d'Ivoire, toujours soucieuse de l'impératif de solidarité entre nations indépendantes appuie ce nouveau projet et lance un appel aux quelques pays qui ont émis des réserves pour qu'ils permettent à nos travaux de recueillir une approbation unanime. Nous espérons que la Conférence de novembre prochain mettra un point final à cette discussion sur le Pacte dont la principale finalité est d'ordre moral, Pacte qui devrait avoir une portée universelle.

B. KOUESSEU (Observateur du Cameroun): Le Cameroun assiste à cette réunion en tant que pays observateur et se félicite de prendre la parole pour apporter sa contribution sur ce point de l'ordre du jour. Mais comme c'est la première fois que nous prenons la parole, excusez-nous du retard, nous tenons à présenter nos félicitations à vous Monsieur le Président pour le tact avec lequel vous conduisez les débats. Permettez-nous aussi de féliciter les trois Vice-Présidents qui ont été élus pour vous seconder dans vos tâches. Nous n'allons pas non plus faillir à notre devoir qui est de remercier le Directeur général, le Dr Saouma, ainsi que l'ensemble de son équipe de collaborateurs pour la qualité des documents qui sont soumis à l'étude de notre Conseil.

La dernière intervention hier soir du Directeur général de la FAO, quand nous nous séparions, intervention empreinte d'émotion et de franchise, n'a pas manqué de nous pénétrer. Je dois avouer que durant la nuit elle m'est revenue plusieurs fois à l'esprit quand nous voyons les points sur lesquels nous achoppons souvent dans les réunions internationales, que ce soit ici à la FAO ou dans d'autres organismes des Nations Unies, on ne peut s'empêcher de dire que la plupart des délégués ou des Etats n'ont pas une conscience claire de la situation spécifique du continent africain.

Permettez-moi, dans cet élan de coeur dans lequel notre Conseil baigne, de donner notre opinion sur le problème du Pacte alimentaire mondial que nous étudions. Le Pacte de sécurité alimentaire mondial est vu par nous comme un acte de foi. Je ne voudrais pas, ce disant, porter une opinion contraire à celle du délégué du Japon, qui est un pays ami avec lequel mon pays entretient de très bonnes relations. Le Pacte alimentaire mondial est un acte de foi parce qu'il est appelé au moment où nous allons célébrer le 40ème anniversaire de la FAO à réaffirmer la vocation et l'habileté de cet Organisme à résoudre le problème des inégalités dans le monde et plus spécialement de celui de la famine qui sévit sur notre planète. Le Pacte alimentaire mondial constituera donc l'occasion de réaffirmer solennellement la volonté unanime de l'humanité à construire un monde dans lequel certains ne meurent pas de faim alors que d'autres détruisent des vivres pour éviter que leurs prix sur le marché puissent baisser, car telle est la situation que nous vivons actuellement.

Pour ceux qui se demandent si un Pacte est nécessaire, puisque déjà des aides alimentaires ont pu être mobilisées sans qu'un Pacte existe, nous répondons que le Pacte sera la codification, je pourrais dire l'expression solennelle de cet élan de générosité qui s'est élevé dans le monde au profit des populations menacées par la faim. Le projet sur lequel nous parlons actuellement n'a en grande partie fait que reprendre l'Acte constitutif de la FAO, les conclusions de la Conférence


mondiale de l'alimentation, les conclusions de. la Conférence mondiale sur la réforme agraire et le développement rural que nos gouvernements ont déjà approuvés. Tel qu'il est présenté il offre l'avantage de réunir dans un seul document, à caractère d'ailleurs non contraignant, toutes les idées qui ont été émises pour réhabiliter l'agriculture dans les pays en développement. Tel qu'il est rédigé il indique non seulement l'obligation qui revient aux pays riches de venir en aide aux pays plus pauvres, mais aussi les actions à entreprendre par les pays pauvres eux-mêmes pour leur permettre de sortir de leur mauvaise situation.

Il s'agit donc d'un texte équilibré. Les hésitations de certaines délégations des pays plus avancés ne se justifient dès lors pas. J'ai dit que le texte est équilibré, je l'ai dit parce que dans différents pays développés les opinions publiques, même si elles ne le disent pas très clairement, ont tendance à croire que si la famine sévit à l'heure actuelle en Afrique c'est du fait des Africains eux-mêmes. Laissez-moi vous dire que nos pays font le maximum de ce qu'ils peuvent avec les moyens limités qu'ils ont, pour promouvoir leur agriculture. Le Docteur Saouma, qui a été L'in-vité de mon pays à une fête agricole il y a environ six mois, peut témoigner ici des efforts que nous faisons, par exemple au Cameroun,dans ce sens. Si l'agriculture africaine est à l'heure actuelle attardée, si nous vivons la famine actuellement, je dois dire que nous ne devons pas perdre de vue que l'Afrique est un continent qui a été ébranlé dans ses fondements par les vicissitudes de l'histoire. Nous ne souhaitons pas que l'on aille fouiller dans les poubelles de l'histoire, mais ma délégation souhaite que nous puissions confirmer, dans le Pacte que nous venons de rédiger, l'élan mondial de générosité qui s'est soulevé dans plusieurs pays et que même les chanteurs, les gens du show-business ont pu promouvoir pour venir en aide à nos pays.

Je terminerai en disant que ma délégation soutient fermement le Projet qui nous est soumis même si celui-ci a été modifié et est un peu trop affadi. Disons que, faute du mieux qu'aurait été la première version, nous nous décidons à soutenir la version actuelle.

I. KABA (Observateur de la Guinée) : La délégation de la République de Guinée en approuvant en bloc le projet de Pacte mondial de sécurité alimentaire en appelle au sens moral, à l'attachement du monde au respect et à l'application des droits de l'homme pour trouver dans ce projet la manifestation de l'engagement de la solidarité internationale pour garantir la sécurité alimentaire à ceux qui en ont besoin. A notre avis ce texte répond effectivement à l'objectif commun que notre Conseil soutient de toutes ses voix venant des cinq continents.

En effet, la déclaration de conclusion faite hier par le Directeur général de la FAO, M. Saouma, situe on ne peut plus moralement, la signification profonde de ce Pacte. C'est pourquoi nous félicitons l'Italie pour son attitude hautement positive, ainsi que la Suisse. Que les Etats Membres ayant formulé des réserves reconsidèrent leur position avec l'espoir de faire de ce document un. acte important pour le 40ème anniversaire de notre Organisation.

Sra. M. E. JIMENEZ ZEPEDA (Observador de El Salvador): Señor Presidente, nos alegra mucho verlo presidir nuevamente nuestros trabajos. No podemos dejar pasar la ocasión para ratificar el apoyo que nuestro Gobierno da al Pacto de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial. Dicho apoyo lo hemos manifestado desde que el mismo fue propuesto por el Director General en el Comité de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial hace dos años.

En nuestra calidad de observador queremos, por lo tanto, unir nuestra voz a la de aquellos que han dado su aprobación al mismo e instamos a los países que aun tienen reservas a que las levanten y que sigan el ejemplo de Suiza y logremos un consenso que nos permita llevar este Pacto a su aprobación a la Conferencia de noviembre de este año. Es una magnífica oportunidad para ratificar nuestra confianza en la FAO en la celebración de sus 40 años de intensa labor a favor de nuestros países.

Sra. R. ZUÑIGA De SANDOVAL (Observador de Honduras): En nuestra calidad de observador, Honduras desea manifestar la posición de nuestro Gobierno, dando su apoyo al Pacto de Seguridad Alimentaría Mundial e insta nuevamente a los países que han manifestado sus reservas hacia el mismo para que reconsideren sus posiciones 1/.

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1/ Texto incluido en las actas a petición expresa.


Mrs 0. DORIA (Observer for the Ad Hoc Group of NGOs): I make this intervention on behalf of the Ad Hoc Group of Non-governmental Organizations. At a meeting specially convened in April to discuss the original draft of the World Food Security Compact the following recommendations were drawn up. In general, the NGO representatives consider the draft text useful in the context of the worsening food situation in the world today and as a reaffirmation of the goals of FAO food security policy. We especially appreciate the recognition accorded to the role of NGOs in mobilizing and securing people's participation at different levels of economic development. However, we consider that this Compact would have no value unless it leads to the strengthening of the political will to generate positive action.

National food strategies and food security measures should pay priority attention to the socioeconomic welfare of small farmers and ensure that sufficient funds are channelled towards this, the security of the farmers being a precondition to food security. Stability in the international cereal market is essential for a regulated world food system. FAO and the international community should step up efforts to ensure this.

Special attention was drawn to the fact that more than 50 percent of food is produced today by women. Concrete action programmes addressed to their special needs therefore should be formulated and implemented. No development project can be a success unless it is carried out with the collaboration and the active participation of the people concerned through their own representative organizations at the grassroot and higher levels.

Also in this context, the Non-Governmental Organizations call for closer cooperation to be developed between governments and people's organizations at national level as well as between FAO and the NGOs at international level.

We also noted that the draft text does not specify action by inter-governmental organizations under item III Closer cooperation and coordination of activities of the various inter-governmental organizations are essential to ensure lasting food security.

J.C. CLAVE (Philippines): I have to speak again because it has become obvious to me, after my intervention this morning, that the Philippine position is not clear to some of our colleagues, I wish to state now, therefore, that the Philippines are in favour of a World Food Security Compact - I wish we could call it by another name. My country is also in favour of FAO providing means - all the means, in fact, especially if it recommends these for means of approval by all Member Nations - in order to achieve food security for all our fellow human beings everywhere in the world.

We have the document that is before us today, and I expressed the hope this morning that it could be further improved. I raised the possibility that through this document we are getting less than what we already have in terms of moral commitment by Member Nations to FAO.

At this point, may I say my country places as much respect, regard and weight to its moral commitment as it gives to its legal commitments. I say this because of certain observations this morning that this Compact does not create any legal or financial obligations on the part of Member States, implying that rural commitments are of less value. Therefore, I am compelled to say that my country places as much, if not more, weight, reverence and respect to its moral obligations under the Charter of the United Nations, as the FAO and other international organizations.

This morning I was hoping for the possibility that, considering the Council is the highest governing body of this Organization, we would be able to introduce some of the ideas brought up during our deliberations. Since this is not possible, I conclude by saying that, as expressed by the Chairman of the Asian Group of Nations, my country goes along with whatever carries the vote of the majority, or the product of the consensus. However, I feel a little sad and frustrated that the Council is left in a position where it has to accept "this or nothing", or accept a situation that "is better than nothing", because I thought our collective genius should be able and should be allowed to produce something better. Before I am misunderstood again, may I say that the Philippines is in favour of a World Food Security Compact.

M. GIFFORD (Canada): Picking up from what the delegate from the Philippines said, I would be very grateful if the Director-General could elaborate somewhat. As I understand it, the Compact was originally a Secretariat initiative. I would be grateful if the Director-General could indicate how he envisages it going forward.

For our part, like several other delegations, we would encourage the Director-General to use his good offices between now and the Fall to work towards achieving the broadest possible consensus on the text. I do not think this is outside the realm of possibility, but we would regret - and so would several other delegations, I think - if once again in the context of a drafting group exercise


we were told, "It is this text or nothing". We believe the Director-General's work over the last several months has been useful. Virtually all delegations have agreed that the second version is the much improved version. For our part, we would be grateful if he would make one more attempt, at least to see if he can get the broadest possible consensus before submitting the document to Conference.

G. BULA HOYOS (Colombia): Yo creo que habría que considerar el hecho de que este Consejo está integrado por 49 Miembros de los cuales sólo tres han expresado algunas reservas. Además muchos observadores han apoyado también este documento. Nosotros no quisiéramos que se repitiera la triste experiencia que ya padecimos en el CSA cuando la versión que había sido presentada en esa ocasión fue debilitada por intervenciones de las mismas delegaciones que luego se opusieron cuando ese texto llegó a Plenaria. Por eso quisiéramos que usted, Sr. Presidente, y ésta es una solicitud respetuosa, preguntara a esos tres países si están o no dispuestos a retirar sus reservas, ya que si no las van a retirar en ningún caso, como es la impresión que tenemos, no podemos pedirle al Director General que haga nuevos esfuerzos cuando ya el CSA y la gran mayoría de los Miembros del Consejo han estado en favor en general de este texto.

Yo creo, por tanto, que ése es el mejor método de proceder y de lo contrario deberemos adoptar la propuesta de los países nórdicos según la cual este Consejo adopta este texto, lo transmite a la Conferencia y, obviamente, en el Informe constarían las reservas de esos tres países; pero mientras no haya las garantías de esos países de que van a considerar la posibilidad de retener sus reservas, creo que no es justo que se incida en debilitar este texto.

LE DIRECTEUR GENERAL: Je voudrais tout d'abord remercier une fois encore le Président du Conseil des ministres d'Italie, M. Bettino Craxi, pour son appui au Pacte mondial sur la sécurité alimentaire. Il l'a fait à deux reprises, et encore aujourd'hui d'une façon solennelle.

La situation mathématiquement est la suivante : il y a 36 pays qui ont pris la parole, il y a 33 pays qui acceptent le texte. Certains d'entre eux auraient voulu faire accepter des amendements comme l'Allemagne, le Mexique, le Royaume-Uni la France avait aussi des remarques à faire, de même que la Communauté européenne. Mais tous ont dit qu'ils étaient prêts à accepter le texte pour ne pas prolonger l'agonie.

Pour qu'on se mette d'accord sur un texte - qui n'est pas parfait, parce qu'on ne peut pas satisfaire 156 pays - il y a trois groupes régionaux, la Communauté européenne qui rassemble 12 pays, les pays nordiques, l'ASEAN aussi, qui ont indiqué qu'ils acceptaient le document.

Il reste le cas de trois pays qui sont les Etats-Unis, le Canada et l'Australie.

Je voudrais être franc et dire que c'est dans l'intérêt de tout le monde que ces trois pays, qui sont parmi les plus gros fournisseurs d'aide, puissent se rallier au texte. C'est pour cela que j'ai amendé le texte peut-être en l'affaiblissant pour essayer d'avoir l'appui de ces trois pays. Je n'ai pas réussi aujourd'hui; je vois que c'est difficile pour certains pays de donner leur adhésion. Je comprends très bien l'attitude des Etats-Unis que je respecte. Je ne comprends pas l'Australie. Son représentant a indiqué semble-t-il que ce texte ne vaut rien, que nous sommes intéressés à l'action, alors que vous ne parlez que de principes, et que nous ne sommes pas là pour perdre notre temps à parler de principes. Le Canada a commencé par mettre en question la valeur et l'utilité du texte, ensuite il a dit qu'il avait deux amendements à présenter; nous en avons pris note.

J'ai l'espoir de gagner le Canada à notre cause. Le Dr Islam et moi-même nous sommes réunis à la fin de la séance de ce matin, nous avons analysé chacun des amendements proposés et nous allons répondre à chacun d'entre eux. Mais c'est le Conseil qui décide. Nous pouvons peut-être obtenir que le Canada se joigne au consensus.

Pour l'Australie, son attitude semble rejeter en bloc le Pacte. Encore si elle avait dit : nous désirons changer tel ou tel paragraphe, mais non.

Quant aux Philippines je n'ai pas très bien compris ce qu'elles voulaient.. L'Ambassadeur nous a dit : il faut améliorer le texte, mais je suis pour un pacte. Mais il n'a pas dit qu'il était pour ce pacte-ci. Il nous a dit : on peut améliorer le texte en tenant compte des amendements. S'agit-il de tous les amendements? Mais à la fin nous avons compris qu'il se ralliait à la décision du groupe de l'ASEAN.


Je me trouve donc dans la situation où trois pays ont des réserves. Il y a peut-être un des trois, le Canada, si j'interprète correctement sa pensée, qui accepterait le Pacte si ses deux propositions d'amendements pouvaient être acceptées par tout le monde. Mais ce n'est pas moi qui accepte ou qui refuse. Par contre je ne vois aucun horizon s'ouvrir du côté de l'Australie. Je respecte l'attitude des Etats-Unis : ce pays généreux peut avoir des raisons bien à lui et que je n'ai pas à connaître, mais il continue à être le plus grand fournisseur d'aide alimentaire dans le monde. Les Etats-Unis n'ont pas critiqué le texte, ils n'ont pas cherché a le dénaturer, ils n'ont pas fait de polémique. Ils ont dit très clairement : nous faisons des réserves. Ce n'est pas la peine de donner des arguments extraordinaires pour rejeter quelque chose.

Mais je peux vous dire que nous avons fait un travail sérieux et très consciencieux. Il faut de la morale en tout. Sans morale, le monde deviendrait une jungle. Un texte comme celui-ci devrait être sculpté dans le marbre comme l'Acte constitutif.

Ce texte est en effet important, il nous donne une force morale, une identité. Ce n'est pas un "gadget" que nous avons fait pour le quarantième anniversaire de la FAO. Il faut bien qu'il y ait une déclaration de principes de l'Organisation à l'occasion de ce quarantième anniversaire. Tous nos principes moraux viennent de McDougall qui a joué un des rôles les plus importants dans la création de la FAO, au Québec. En fait, nous ne faisons que répéter des principes moraux déjà énoncés.

Je vais demander au Prof. Islam d'expliquer la portée de chacun des amendements qui ont été proposés. La chose la plus simple est que ce texte soit accepté par le Conseil et que la décision revienne à la Conférence. Peut-être pourrons-nous trouver un texte qui puisse satisfaire le Canada. Le Mexique aussi a fait beaucoup de remarques. Il peut y avoir sept ou huit points par-ci et par-là que l'on peut préciser sans changer la substance. C'est une question d'interprétation, mais pour le moment écoutons le Prof. Islam.

N. ISLAM (Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Policy Department): I should like to respond to some of the comments and suggestions made in the course of today's debate on the draft World Food Security Compact, with the exception of those of the nature of drafting improvements.

Firstly, the delegates of Canada and the United Kingdom have referred to section III, second paragraph, last sentence. 1 shall read the entire paragraph: "Governments of developing countries should promote domestic food production as the first line of attack on food insecurity. They should avoid, as far as they can, the [dangers] risks that result from an excessive dependence on food imports, notably for feeding urban populations. In particular, they should ensure that city-dwellers do not acquire a permanent preference for imported basic foods which cannot be grown domestically."

In referring to the last sentence of that paragraph the delegates of Canada and the United Kingdom pointed out that there are countries which would or may need to depend on imports for both economic and ecological reasons. Of course, this is assuming that they have exports of non-food commodities or non-agricultural commodities to sell at efficient and competitive prices in order to buy food imports.

In principle we do not see any serious disagreement with this observation, and recognize that there are, obviously, countries where the possibilities of growing food are depleted because of ecological and other factors, countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and others. But this last sentence should be seen in the context of the whole paragraph where the reference is made to excessive dependence and the risks attendant upon excessive dependency. This sentence also refers to permanent preference for imported basic foods. These are the operative phrases, hence the reference to permanent dependency and basic foods. It does not imply that under no circumstances would the countries depend on imports. It does imply that basic foods which can be substituted by domestic food crops should be a desirable alternative in many places. Therefore the comments by the delegates from Canada and the United Kingdom do not seem to seriously disagree.

The second point mentioned by the delegate of Canada refers to Section III, paragraph 8: "Governments of developed countries, whether they be exporters or importers should consider the interests of the World as a whole when making [decisions on such matters as target levels for food production and stocks.] their policy decisions on food production, stocks and imports." The question here is with regard to the phrase, "Governments of developed countries, whether they be exporters or importers". The reference there is to imports, and therefore the last word in that sentence should be changed by substituting the words "trade involving both exports and imports". Here again we have no basic disagreement with this proposition as it is not contradictory to what is implied in this formulation.


1 now come to the comments made by the delegate of Mexico, who suggested that reference should be made in the Preamble to various United Nations resolutions, declarations and charters which are relevant to this Preamble. There seem to be other delegates who think that reference to various resolutions will make the Compact more cumbersome and heavier reading. Therefore, in the interests of brevity and conciseness, we thought that we might forego references to these resolutions and charters even though the principles contained therein are fully expressed in the Preamble.

The delegate from Mexico also commented on Section III, paragraph 7, with regard to the reference to "commitment to cooperation", suggesting that the deletion of "with developing countries" should be reinserted. If you look at the reformulated sentence , it says "Governments both of developing and developed countries". That is why, once we have deleted governments of developed and developing countries, the reference to "commitment to cooperation" is not only between developed and developing but also among developing countries. So it is the general formulation of all types of cooperation between developed, developing, among developed, among developing. That is why the specific reference to cooperation with developing countries has been deleted. We thought that this was the sense of the comments of delegates at the last meeting of the Committee on World Food Security.

The question whether reference to poorer and richer countries should be substituted by reference to developed and developing countries we again thought was not so critical a matter of importance since often these terms are used interchangeably and, after all, a difference in income is the most distinguishing characteristic between developed and developing countries.

The delegate of Mexico also pointed out in paragraph 11 that the original reference to "moral dimension to certain trading problems" was a better formulation than the revised formulation in which the moral dimensions have been shifted to "trade relations with a view to striking an equitable balance". We thought that this second formulation was possibly a more relevant one in the light of various comments made at the last meeting, and we would have thought that it does strengthen the reference to the moral aspect, which is now in terms of trade relations.

Section V, paragraph 1. The delegate of Mexico referred to the words "sacred obligation" stating that this implies some kind of religious connotation. This is not meant to imply any such connotation. It is only intended to emphasize exactly what the delegate of Mexico had in mind, the primary and fundamental nature of this obligation.

The delegate of Cuba suggested additional reference to landless labourers in the second sentence of paragraph 5, Section III. Paragraph 5 states; "Rural development activities, oriented specifically towards the needs of the poor, should be promoted with special emphasis on the participation of the small farmer." Again, we have no difficulty with this interpretation. In fact, in the second sentence where reference is made to the purchasing power of the poorest strata of the population, and reference is made to the Programme of Action, which is all comprehensive and all embracing, including landless labour, we thought this would create no problem as far as reference to landless labourers is concerned.

The delegate of Germany suggested an addition to the Preamble of past achievements in the field of food and agriculture. Again, in the interest of brevity we thought that the principles are illustrated in the Preamble. We thought that reference to factual and political achievements in the last 15/20 years might not be quite appropriate. If achievements are referred to, other may wish to make reference to the failures and shortcomings. Therefore, in order to resolve this problem we thought we would mention neither past achievements nor failures.

Because the preamble is an enunciation of principles not an analysis of past achievements or past failures.

A suggestion was made also by the delegate of Germany that the reference to small farmers should have been made earlier. As we refer to small farmers in various places, we thought that whether they are referred to earlier or later is not critical as long as they are referred to in appropriate places.

CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much Professor Islam, In the light of what you heard do the delegates of Canada, Australia, or the United States want to make a comment?

L. ARIZA HIDALGO (Cuba): Sr. Islam ha tenido la amabilidad de hacernos un analisis tan preciso sobre las posibilidades de algunas modificaciones o de las que se plantearon, y que nosotros expresamos que no íbamos a crear problemas con ellas de aceptarse el Pacto tal como esta; pero nos parece que se ha olvidado la más importante observación que yo hice. Es en el punto 4 los alimentos Generales, en cuanto decía que debían mantenerse las palabras, no deben utilizarse los alimentos como medio para ejercer presiones políticas", en vez de "no podrán, ya que poder pueden y están pudiendo, lo que no deben es hacerlo. Creo que eso para nosotros es más importante que lo


N. ISLAM (Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Policy Department): I think there may be some difference of interpretation between the Spanish and the English. We have used the same words as were used in the 1983 report of the FAO Conference - the words used there were "food should not be used as a means of exerting political pressure". It is exactly the same as was approved by the entire Conference, and we have followed the exact language of the 1983 FAO Conference.

L. ARIZA HIDALGO (Cuba); Si he entendido bien la explicación del Sr. Islam, en la versión española y en la francesa aparece entre corchetes "deben", que es lo que se nos ha planteado que se va a suprimir. En la primera versión aparecía "deben" y ahora incluyen subrayado "podrán", esto es lo que nosotros proponemos.

CHAIRMAN: As I said this morning, I think that we should not convert the whole conference into a drafting session.

M. GIFFORD (Canada): We are not going to nickle-and-dime anyone to death over this. We have indicated two of our concerns. I think perhaps Professor Islam has not completely appreciated the point, but I regard the present draft as being in effect agricultural fundamentalism disguised by one remove, and I much prefer the formulation which our United Kingdom colleague articulated. I have made a reference on the question of trade, and, as I say, we are not going to nickle-and-dime everyone to death on this, but those are two concerns that the Canadian delegation has specifically raised.

A more fundamental problem though is the way in which this Compact has evolved. There was absolutely no dialogue at the Committee on World Food Security. To the credit of the Director-General, he did come back on his own initiative with a revised version which I think virtually everybody agrees is an improvement. It does not detract from the original version - in fact it improves it substantially. What I find difficulty in is accepting the usefulness of this Compact if it cannot be subscribed to by all - and I mean all. It seems incredible to me, for example, that it has not been possible to accomodate the interests of the United States. It is, I think, the world's largest agricultural exporter, the world's largest donor of agricultural development assistance. I do not believe that it is salutory for an international organization such as FAO to develop resolutions or compacts which in effect do not take into account the fundamental interests of all, the small and the large. For that reason I was seeking, I think, the agreement of the Director-General that he would make at least one more attempt before the Conference to see if he could manage, through his negotiative skill and diplomacy, to develop a text which is acceptable to all. I think that is the major issue and not the issue of whether or not Canada can agree to a particular text. As we say, we are not going to nickle-and-dime on this one.

DIRECTOR-GENERAL: I am grateful to the delegate of Canada for his second intervention. I doubt I could satisfy him but I am, I think, to be congratulated if I can produce a text which is approved by 95 percent. I cannot have it approved by 100 percent - nobody can, it does not exist. At the Conference, let's hope, I shall have 99 percent: I know fundamentally that the USA cannot accept this text: their position is very sincere and honest, and we have talked together. All that I have done is mainly to satisfy the USA and Australia and Canada, not to satisfy Cuba and Mexico - on the contrary. But if you say "try again", - if the Council asks me to I shall try. But I doubt I could satisfy you.

You say that you are unhappy with "the manner" - what is "the manner"? Here we are acting democratically. The manner has been accepted by everybody. It is possible to have a document approved by 95 percent - everyone except three or four perhaps. This is democracy. We have to respect the difference, but you are a minority. Please try to understand - I am speaking very frankly in front of everybody here. You have to recognize the views of others; you have to try - as some delegates say - to go along with the others. But if you cannot do it, you just say so. I am not being naive, but I have a good heart! I believed that we could perhaps satisfy everybody by making some changes in these two paragraphs - but that is not the case. You wonder why this Council cannot accommodate - but it is just impossible - not on this issue, and we have had experience on other issues as well.

So, if the Council asks me to try again, I shall try again - but without much hope. I know the positions and I do understand and respect the views of the United States. Australia seems to have rejected it en bloc: they don't believe in it. And as regards the delegate of Canada - remembering the way it has been discussed, I feel from my experience that it may be very difficult to satisfy you. It might be possible on those two items - but it is not those two items only, it goes much beyond that.


J.C. CLAVE (Philippines): I was raising the Philippine flag earlier to enquire into the parliamentary situation - but I think I should forget about that. I am now intervening in the light of the Director-General's enquiry as to what the Philippines' proposals could be to improve the text.

The Philippine position has been a little misunderstood, perhaps, in view of the practice in certain parliamentary bodies. I was hoping that we would have a period of debate, to be followed by a period of introducing amendments: but that does not seem to be the case - so pardon me if I do not know the procedures.

To illustrate the Philippine position, and its eagerness to help improve the document if possible, may I say first of all that this morning I called attention to the word "Compact" and in the process of this morning's deliberations our distinguished colleague from India for instance used the phrase "guiding principles". In the light of this observation I was ready to propose that after the original title, in brackets, we should insert something like "Guiding Principles for Future Action on Food Security". I would have proposed that had there been an opportunity to introduce amendments.

My second point would be a structural one. We have paragraphs "A. Governments of developing countries" and "B. Governments of developed countries". I understand that this has been omitted in the final draft, and I think the omission of those two phrases is a good step to take, because by including A and B we have drawn a line between developed and non-developed countries. If that was the decision of the Committee and we now adopt it, I would have proposed that paragraph 7, "Governments should reaffirm their moral as well as" become the first paragraph, because it would then serve the purpose of calling upon every Member Nation, developed or not developed, to reaffirm their moral commitment. It is only a structural change, but it follows the wisdom of the omission of the two phrases.

That is why I thought we would have had this opportunity. Our colleague, Dr Islam, now says for instance that the Preamble is a statement of principles. A closer examination may perhaps be necessary, because is this in fact a statement of principles? I wish to invite the attention of this body, for instance, to the words "the World Food Security Compact brings together general principles and suggestions for action by governments". I do not see how that can be a statement of principle. On the other hand, in the course of the intervention this morning our colleague from Pakistan said something like "reaffirming the beliefs of this body and providing" - or "making provision for" -"food security for all men"'. I thought that was a declaration worth including in the Preamble, and if I had been permitted I would perhaps have suggested that everything we say here be tied back to the Charter of FAO. In other words, I would want it to appear - if only we could - that everything we declare here emanated from, or is the result of, our commitment to the United Nations Charter -- let us say for instance, "Considering the provisions of the FAO Charter, we now declare this to be so".

As I say, perhaps I shall not have this opportunity but, if I do, I hope that you, Mr Chairman, and the Director-General and my colleagues, will please understand that the efforts of my delegation have really been towards making our modest - shall we say - contribution to the improvement of the document.

So again may I say that we are for such a document. The Director-General says, "am I for this document?" - I am, but I am still hoping that after this intervention we may find a way to improve it, probably by transferring the contents of paragraph 7 to paragraph 1, or somewhere else in the document.

Mame BALLA SY (Senegal): Monsieur le President, je souhaiterais, après avoir eu une consultation avec certains pays africains, vous dire toute notre surprise devant la tournure que vient de prendre ce débat, après toutes nos explications depuis qu'a eu lieu le Comité de sécurité alimentaire.

Je crois que le Directeur général n'a plus le droit, pour essayer de réussir un compromis, de soumettre la majorité, en tous cas des membres favorables, à ce pacte, à cette gymnastique interminable qui n'aboutira, en fait, à aucun résultat concret.

Monsieur le Président, si vous vous rapportez au rapport du Conseil de sécurité alimentaire rédigé dans le document CL 87/10, vous verrez que la suppression de la distinction des responsabilités entre les gouvernements a été seulement demandée par une délégation et je dois vous dire, pour avoir présidé le Comité de rédaction, que la proposition de cette délégation a été totalement rejetée par le Comité. Or, Monsieur le Directeur général, dans un esprit de compromis, a donné satisfaction à cette délégation, mais si on lui demande encore d'essayer de faire d'autres modifications, même si, après, ces modifications devaient nous amener à adopter un texte, le texte n'aurait aucune valeur parce que la volonté en serait totalement absente, puisque, pour adopter déjà un principe de pacte, on a autant de difficultés même si on arrive à un résultat, nous pouvons dire qu'il n'aura aucun sens. La peine nous aura découragé au point que nous sommes certains que même ce document qui sera adopté n'aura aucune utilité ni aucune efficacité, ne nous y trompons pas.


Pour revenir aux amendements qui nous ont été communiqués, à les étudier, on se rend compte déjà qu'il n'est pas utile d'essayer d'autres tentatives parce qu'il s'agit d'amendements qui, en fait, n'apportent rien de nouveau à ce texte. Ce sont des amendements qui n'auraient pas dû justifier une opposition aussi ferme; ce n'est donc qu'une manoeuvre dilatoire. Pour donner un exemple, Monsieur le Président, prenez le paragraphe 2 de la section III, dernière phrase, il est dit que "les gouvernements doivent veiller à ce que les citadins n'acquièrent pas de préférence permanente pour les aliments de base importés qui ne peuvent être cultivés dans le pays". On nous dit qu'il y a des situations où l'on n'a pas la possibilité de produire suffisamment, mais si l'on considère le sens éthymologique de l'expression "n'acquièrent pas de préférence", c'est qu'il y a un choix. Une préférence ne peut pas être indiquée en l'absence de choix. Donc cela est très évident, il n'y a aucune confusion. Si l'on marque une préférence, c'est vis-à-vis de quelque chose, donc par le biais des pays qui peuvent avoir une préférence. Je crois donc sincèrement que c'est là un amendement qui ne fait que nous retarder dans un consensus que nous ne voulons pas donner en essayant de faire durer la manoeuvre. A quelle fin ? je ne saurais le dire.

Peut-être puis-je accepter la modification au paragraphe 8 concernant les importations alimentaires en mettant: "le commerce alimentaire". Cela c'est vrai. Ce n'est qu'une modification légère qui peut être acceptée.

Venons-en maintenant à ce fameux titre de "Pacte mondial". D'aucuns disent que le titre ne sied pas. En fait, je suis très gêné de devoir discuter de cette situation, compte tenu de ma modeste expérience et devant la très très grande expérience des personnes qui soutiennent cette idée, mais je me demande vraiment si dans les véritables actes juridiques internationaux au sens du droit international, le pacte a là l'aspect obligatoire que l'on veut lui donner par comparaison avec les traités et les conventions. Pour moi personnellement un pacte, même si on prend le terme dans son expression ordinaire, peut même être oral, peut même être un engagement de quelqu'un vis-à-vis de quelque chose ou de quelqu'un. Je pense généralement que l'on pourrait même le situer dans le mode de règlement des confrontations militaires ou des belligérances. En tous cas, après certaines conséquences négatives de conflits, les pays arrivent à passer un pacte dans l'intérêt réciproque. Donc je crois qu'en fait le titre ne dérange nullement et ne peut explicitement dire qu'il s'agit d'un engagement juridique obligatoire. Le remplacer par "principe" ou par "déclaration", à mon avis signifierait purement et simplement renoncer à l'idée même que nous avions mise avec beaucoup d'efforts et de persévérance. Le mot "adhérer" a également beaucoup gêné, alors que je pense que cela risque de nous mener à des conclusions peut-être de certains termes comme "la ratification", "l'approbation", qui ont des sens assez précis en matière de droit international, mais je crois qu'ici on n'a pas pensé à "adhérer" comme "ratification" ou "approbation" avec toute la procédure solennelle que cela implique, mais simplement au fait d'épouser les idées conçues dans le texte qui nous est présenté.

En tous cas, en conclusion Monsieur le Président, je pense très sincèrement qu'il y a une ironie du sort parce que l'on n'a jamais cessé de nous répéter que nous devons agir et que nous devons écouter ces petits paysans. Je pense que nous devons aussi sur la scène internationale enseigner à certains pays que les grands pays doivent écouter les petits pays et qu'ils doivent se préoccuper en tous cas de leurs objectifs et de leurs aspirations, parce que leurs attitudes pourraient même justifier ce qu'ils reprochent, à tort ou à raison, à certains de nos pays à qui ils semblent dire qu'ils ne se préoccupent pas de leur population. Mais voilà que l'on a une preuve, qu'également sur la scène internationale, on ne semble pas, au niveau des grands pays, écouter la voix des petits pays. Je vous remercie Monsieur le Président.

J. TCHICAYA (Congo): Je serai très bref pour rappeler que ce matin, en intervenant, j'ai clairement laissé entendre que les efforts qu'a déployé le Directeur général entre la dernière session du Comité de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale et notre session du Conseil, me paraissaient vains parce que nous ne pensions pas, en-dehors de la Suisse, que les pays qui avaient émis des réserves, étaient, en fait, prêts à se rallier à un texte quel qu'il soit. Nous avions la ferme conviction qu'il s'agissait là de questions de principe et que ces pays ne changeraient pas. Je crois que mon ami du Sénégal l'a dit; on ne peut pas nous mener en bateau pendant longtemps. Je crois que le Directeur général a fait ses efforts, nous les avons, à juste titre, loués. Je crois que l'on nous a dit tout à l'heure que tout le monde a reconnu que le texte actuel est meilleur que celui qu'avait arrêté le Comité de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale. Je dirai non; nous n'avons pas dit cela. Je crois que cela doit être clair. Au contraire nous avons dit que ce texte a été encore affaibli par rapport à celui dont le Comité de la Sécurité alimentaire mondiale avait demandé la transmission au Conseil. Il a été affaibli, mais pour des raisons que nous connaissons, pour essayer d'obtenir l'aval d'un certain nombre de pays. Nous avions jugé bon, ou plutôt acceptable, les dernières propositions faites par le Directeur général.


Je crois que c'est dans cet esprit qu'il faut interpreter notre adhésion à l'actuel texte qui est proposé en dernier recours. Donc il ne s'agit pas d'une amélioration, mais il s'agit bien d'un affaiblissement du texte. Je crois qu'il faut que le Secrétariat essaye de rappeler aux membres du Conseil le cheminement suivi par ce Pacte dont l'élaboration a été précédée par un long processus de consultations. Je crois qu'il faut que les membres du Conseil en soient imprégnés pour que l'on ne pense pas que ce texte n'a pas été mûri et discuté. Nous pensons que ce texte a été bien mûri, à tel point qu'au Comité de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale, nous avons considéré qu'il s'agissait là d'un texte fini et qu'il était possible de le transmettre au Conseil. Nous savions aussi que les pays qui avaient émis des réserves resteraient figés dans leur position.

Monsieur le Président je vous demande que tous les membres du Conseil ne pactisent pas avec le diable.

A. ABDEL-MALEK (Liban)(langue originale arabe): Je voudrais féliciter M. Edouard Saouma, non pas en tant que compatriote et ami mais en tant que Directeur général de cette Organisation qui déploie tous ses efforts, qui offre tant de services à tous les pays et notamment aux pays en développement. La ténacité, l'assiduité et la grande compétence de cette personnalité, qui se sont exprimées dans la réponse qu'il a donnée à l'intervention du délégué du Canada, en sont la preuve.

En dépit de tout cela nous ne pouvons qu'appuyer ce qu'a dit notre ami Bula Hoyos, délégué de la Colombie, au sujet de ce pacte. Nous ne pouvons revenir aux tergiversations que nous avons entendues lorsque l'un des délégués avait demandé, lors de la dernière session du Conseil, de discuter d'une question qui n'avait pas été à l'ordre du jour, et vous savez bien à quelle situation cela avait abouti. Nous avons beaucoup trop discuté de cette question, nous sommes en démocratie et. c'est la majorité qui doit l'emporter. Nous sommes déjà en retard alors que nous ne sommes qu'au début de notre chemin et c'est pour cela que je vous demande de clore cette discussion et de passer au point 7 de notre ordre du jour et, au pire des cas, de passer au vote.

Je vous remercie.

W.A.F. GRABISCH (Germany, Federal Republic of): I could be in agreement with what was just stated by the honourable delegate of the Lebanon, but since you gave me the floor, I would like to say that I have at least something, may be much more than I think, in common with the distinguished delegate of Senegal. We both seem to have the same rural producer background if I may say so and that is exactly why we always have in mind what may be the feelings and interests of those who work the field and who produce the food, when we go into our discussions here. We had put no reservations. We had suggested some little improvements for the text, but when we did so, we did it in a constructive spirit and not with the aim of delaying our proceedings.

R.G. PETTITT (United Kingdom): I had rather hoped to come in earlier to say that it is disappointing that two or three major exporting countries cannot be associated with this Compact and this does substantially reduce the value of it. For this reason we would argue strongly that serious attention should be given to the views of one major exporter which is specifically exerting itself to trying to find a draft it can accept. Therefore I ask your indulgence to consider the proposal which emanated from Canada on this side. It would be a major advance if one major exporter could be associated with this, if not all.

We have heard from Dr Islam that one of the two proposals by Canada which was echoed by ourselves could be dealt with by making clear what was meant by the third sentence of paragraph III A 2. Dr Islam has said that the sentence should be linked with the idea of excessive dependence. I did not read it in that way. If it could be made clear that it was linked with excessive dependence, I would be happy to drop my proposal for an amendment and say that the United Kingdom would be happy if it were recast in such a way that this was made clear. I think this could be resolved by removing the words "In particular, they" and substituting "Where there is such a danger governments should ensure". That makes it quite clear that it is linked to excessive dependence and misunderstandings would be avoided. With this our own reservations would be withdrawn.

O. FRIIS (Denmark): I am sorry, I have to admit that I am somewhat confused as to what the present situation is. Early this morning and this afternoon I have been taking notes of the different suggestions of amendments to the text. But I am not quite sure that I am completely able to understand my own handwriting on the conference paper. At the same time I am not quite sure what is the position of the Secretariat on this matter. I did not understand whether the Secretariat, by the voice of Professor Islam, was endorsing the different proposals for amendments or just referring the


amendments. I wonder if it might not be wise if we could see them and if you could circulate the different suggestions for amendments in writing to the Council so that at a later stage we could return to this question knowing exactly what we are discussing.

I would also like to recall that the Danish delegation - and we were speaking on behalf of the Nordic countries - expressed that we were able to go along with the text as it stands, or I should say now, as it stood this morning.

There are a number of amendments now and I would very much like to look at these amendments and be allowed to reconsider our position in this new light.

DIRECTOR-GENERAL: The decision has already been made by the overwhelming majority to go along with the text. This is the logic and the justice. 1 do not think the Chairman would deny this. If the Chairman is going to open the discussion again, this is different. But if we stop now 90 percent of those present have adopted the position and will go along with the text.

We as a Secretariat do not have to accept or not accept amendments. We are just the Secretariat who propose the text. 1 was not requested last time. The amended text may have weakened by 20 percent the original one. This was suggested in order to reach a consensus. 1 realize now that it is just not possible to have a consensus. The delegate of Australia has been silent the whole time. The delegate of Canada has made two points on the text but generally he appears not to like it. The U.S. delegation made reservations in a sober manner and 1 understand their attitude. They have an attitude of principle. They cannot go along with the text.

Now Mr Chairman, the situation appears as follows: either to weaken the text further or, as others want, to strengthen it. The delegate of Congo says it is a weak text and he doesn't seem to like it. The U.K. Delegation asks for amendments which might weaken the draft.

It is not the Secretariat who is approving or disapproving amendments.

G. BULA HOYOS (Colombia): Voy a intervenir muy brevemente en mi condición de miembro del Comité de Redacción porque comparto la confusión expresada por el colega de Dinamarca. Yo creo que el Director General ha sintetizado muy bien el punto en que nos encontramos. Estoy seguro de que usted, con su competencia habitual, hará un resumen acertado; sin embargo, yo creo que la conclusión de este debate es muy clara. El Consejo,en general, adopta este texto revisado y decide transmitirlo a la Conferencia. Luego, en el proyecto de Informe que será elaborado por el Comité de Redacción, del que forman parte muchos de los países que han participado en el debate, se harán reflejar los comentarios, los elementos de algunas de esas propuestas, y a la luz de ese informe y de su propia convicción y competencia, el Director General decidirá qué acción tomará frente a la Conferencia.

CHAIRMAN: I think the former Independent Chairman has tried to do my work. Let me say that as far as I am concerned I think Professor Islam was trying to reply or clarify some points made.

My notes say that this draft which has been circulated and which we have been discussing over the past five hours has been supported by Italy, along with a message from the Prime Minister of Italy, Denmark on behalf of the Nordic countries, Lebanon, Philippines, Bangladesh, Colombia, China, Congo, Argentina, Austria, India, France, Egypt, Panama, Pakistan, Venezuela, Mexico, Cyprus, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, on behalf also of the ASEAN countries, Trinidad and Tobago, Spain, Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, Senegal, Cuba,Rwanda, Uganda, People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, Sao Tomé and Principe, Thailand and Czechoslovakia, and among observers , the European Economic Community on behalf of ten Member States -Nicaragua, Swaziland, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Guinea, El Salvador and on behalf of the non-governmental organizations by the representative. Australia, Canada and the United States have expressed. reservations and some concern. This is the situation among those who have spoken. If there is further argument I am afraid it will have to be taken up in the Drafting Committee, but as far as we are concerned, that is the position of the delegates who have spoken. Tanzania wants to be included. I am sure all the other members are in favour. We take it that all the other members here who have not spoken are in favour. It is very kind of you to have saved time. I am very grateful to all the delegates who have spoken. As the Director-General says, no such draft can be satisfactory to everyone, but as far as we can see the compactness of the Compact is very important because the fact that a prime minister of a country can get time to read a document of this sort is very important, otherwise we will never get the attention of the highest people in the government who ought to read this and use it as a reference point in the direction of their national policy.


A. ABDEL-MALEK (Lebanon) What is the result of the whole discussion?

CHAIRMAN: So many people have approved.

A. ABDEL-MALEK (Lebanon) why do you not say it?

CHAIRMAN: I have already said it. Do you want me to repeat it? I said the countries which I have named have all approved. Three countries have expressed reservations. Naturally we will have to find a place for that in the report when the Drafting Committee prepares the report, and you will have the fruit of the Drafting Committee's report on the last day when we consider the report.

DIRECTOR-GENERAL: I remember that last time there was a big discussion whether it was approved by the majority, whether the Council has approved it. I think it is up to you to announce it.

CHAIRMAN: The Council has overwhelmingly approved. I only said that the Drafting Committee's job is to put it in a formulation when it comes to us with the reservations of the three countries; otherwise it has the support of all the members of the Council.

M. SUBRAMANIAN (India): I would like to confirm, with your approval, that the Council has endorsed the draft of the World Food Security Compact which has been presented by the Secretariat to this Council. And it will be the responsibility of the Drafting Committee to draft the recommendations of the Council to the Conference and not to redraft the Compact. I am sorry that you have not put it on the record because the Drafting Committee should be clear on its mandate, which is to draft a resolution to transmit the Compact to the FAO Conference, and the Drafting Committee should not be burdened with the responsibility of tampering with this draft. I think I am speaking for all of us who have debated this Compact and supported it.

CHAIRMAN: The Drafting Committee only prepares the report of our discussion. I would like to indicate to you the scenario. I find I have not been so very successful in keeping time. So I am going to take the help of my distinguished Vice Chairman, Ambassador Francisci di Baschi, and I hope he will be more successful than I am.

We are still at item 6.2. We have item 7, the Committee on Agriculture, which ought to have been introduced today. Then we have the Commission on Fertilizers and the Committee on Fisheries, and if we finish all these three items by tomorrow evening, on Friday morning we can start with the Summary Programme of Work and Budget. So my suggestion is that you should be prepared to stay tomorrow evening until such time as we get through item 9, so that we can start with the Summary Programme of Work and Budget first thing on Friday morning. So kindly realign your programme in such a way that we can complete this.

I now request the Vice-Chairman, Ambassador Francisci di Baschi, to come over and take up item 6.2, and Professor Islam will introduce it.

M. Francisci di Baschi, Vice-Chairman of the Council, took the chair
M. Francisci di Baschi,
Vice-Président du Conseil, assume la présidence
Ocupa la Presidencia M. Francisci di Baschi, Vicepresidente del Consejo


6.2 Other Matters
6.2 Autres questions
6.2 Otros asuntos

LE PRESIDENT: Nous reprenons nos travaux. Avant d'entrer dans le vif des questions, je voudrais remercier le Conseil, et personnellement M. Bula-Hoyos, mon ami, et le délégué du Danemark pour avoir respectivement proposé et appuyé ma candidature. Je remercie également le Conseil pour cette manifestation de confiance. Je donne la parole au Prof. Islam.

N. ISLAM (Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Policy Department): Agenda item 6 is the Report of the 10th Session of the Committee on World Food Security, and is presented in document CL 87/10. In its 10th Session, the Committee on World Food Security dealt with a number of important issues.

The first heading of the Report is the "Assessment of the World Food Security Situation and Recent Policy Developments". As a follow-up to the proposal of the Director-General relating to world food security, the Committee considered four major items, namely, the Report of the Symposium on World Food Security, the contribution of food aid to food security, the existing arrangements for meeting urgent import requirements of the low-income food-deficit countries, and the draft text of the World Food Security Compact.

In addition, the Committee considered the role of forestry in food security and reviewed the purposes and operational modalities of the Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture.

As the draft World Food Security Compact has already been discussed, I will limit my introduction to the deliberations and conclusions of the Committee on the other items. When considering the current world food security situation, the Council noted that the food situation in Africa, particularly in 21 drought-affected countries, remains precarious. The Committee expresed grave concern over the continuing series of food shortages in these countries, and welcomed and supported the efforts made by the Director-General to draw the attention of the international community to the African food emergency, and to mobilize international assitance. The Committee expressed appreciation of the positive response by the international community, and of the substantial efforts made by the countries concerned to facilitate the distribution of supplies to the affected people.

The need for assistance to ease internal transportation bottlenecks was underlined, and the Committee reiterated that the achievement of food security over the longer term depended primarily on a sustained increase of production at national level.

Next, the Committee considered the Report of the Symposium on World Food Security, convened on the initiative of the Director-General, and presented for information. In its deliberations on this Report, the Committee underlined the conclusion of the symposium that world food insecurity stemmed in part from global causes external to the food and agricultural sector,including financial, monetary, trade, energy and population factors. The Committee reiterated the conclusions of the symposium that action at national level was of primary importance in strengthening food security, although complementary action at regional and world levels was also necessary to make national action effective. In this connexion, the Committee agreed that bilateral and multilateral donors could play a role in promoting and implementing cooperative regional schemes among developing countries.

Noting the various reasons identified by the symposium for the limited use of the International Monetary Fund Cereal Financing Facility, the Committee suggested it would be useful to analyse the reason why those countries who qualified for credit under this Facility had not resorted to it. Noting further the suggestion made at the symposium for a food aid insurance scheme and an alternative insurance scheme to be administered by the developing countries themselves, the Committee felt that this idea required further study and clarification.

The Committee welcomed the document on the contribution of food aid to food security and considered the comprehensive plans were timely, particularly in view of the African food crisis.

The Committee endorsed the actions proposed by the Director-General to be taken by the recipient countries in order to make the contribution of food aid to food security more effective. This is related to the need for integrated food aid within national food security programmes and strategies and the need to create national food aid units. Food aid plans should give priority to the improvement of infrastructure facilities and food security objectives in deciding on the allocation of revenue generated from the sale of food aid.


The Committee endorsed most of the proposals for action by donor countries to enhance the contribution of food aid to food security. Noting the proposal of prepositioning of stocks in advance for possible emergencies in disaster-prone areas or alternatively in strategic locations with good shipping connexions, the Committee requested the Secretariat to develop this proposal further for consideration at a future session, taking into account the experience of some donors in this respect.

Other proposals for action to be taken by donors related to promoting triangular transactions and multilinear programming, discussed in paragraphs 40 and 41 of the document. The Committee considered a number of proposals for multilateral action, including proposals for increasing dependability of food aid as well as improving its responsiveness to large-scale shortages. The views of the Committee on this were many, and are given in paragraphs 42 to 51 of the document.

As regards the proposal for improving international emergency food reserves, a large number of delegates supported the suggestion of dividing the IEFR into two components, one with an existing minimum target of 500 000 tons and a stand-by pledge of 1,5 million tons to be called forward to meet identified needs wherever the basic reserve was fully committeed. The Committee stressed that this was conceived as an international mechanism to respond effectively to food crises, and the recent experience of meeting the needs in Africa clearly demonstrated the need for a large multilateral emergency reserve with a stand-by in order to facilitate the response of the international community. The Committee invited the Committees on Food Aid Programmes and Policies to consider a proposal for a stand-by reserve for IEFR, bearing in mind views expressed by delegates at the 10th Session of the Committee on World Food Security.

The third item was a follow-up to the proposal of the Director-General to implement the revised concept relating to the review of existing arrangements for meeting urgent input requirements of low-income food-deficit countries. The Committee reiterated the general support for an interim system of national food reserves and urged all governments which had not already done so to earmark within the context of national systems of legislation the necessary resources and funds for this. The Committee requested the Secretariat to continue to monitor and report on progress in this regard.

The Committee welcomed the inclusion of the item on the role of forestry in food security and requested it continue to be reviewed periodically. The Committee noted that forestry contributed to food security through its productive and environmental role, through the creation of employment and income, as a source of fuel wood for cooking, and as a source of foreign exchange. The Committee recommended inter alia that FAO increase its work in the area of agro-forestry systems, which integrate trees, crops and livestock production, and strengthen the related information base.

Finally, the Committee reviewed the purpose and operational modalities of the Global Information and Early Warning System, In its review, the Committee expressed its strong support for the work of the system. The Committee considered that in the sixteen years of its operation, the system performed effectively its unique role in continuously monitoring crop developments at both global and national levels, and in issuing a warning to the international community whenever food supplies were threatened. The Committee urged all governments participating in the system to provide the system with all the available data for its proper functioning. The Committee also fully considered the proposals of the Director-General for strengthening the system in the 1986-87 biennium which it considered to be a high priority.

S. M. MATIUR RAHMAN (Bangladesh): I am pleased to see you in the chair on this occasion, Mr Chairman, when we are discussing the very important subject of world food security. We are confident that under your chairmanship we will be able to make an improvement in this regard.

The Bangladesh Delegation would like to thank Professor Islam for his excellent introduction of the report of the Tenth Session of the CFS. We would also like to commend the Committee for presenting this balanced and valuable report, which contains important conclusions and recommendations for strengthening world food security.

My delegation, on careful examination of these recommendations, has found them well thought out and timely. We are of the strong opinion that implementation of these recommendations will strengthen world food security. We therefore generally endorse all the recommendations and conclusions contained in the document. However, in doing so, my delegation would like to take up some of the major points of conclusions and recommendations for specific comments.

While agreeing with the Committee's assessment of the world food security situation and sharing its concern about the continuing critical food situation in Africa as contained in Section II of this report, my delegation would like to point out that despite the welcome economic recovery in the developed countries of the world, its beneficial impact has not commensurately reached the developing countries with its inherently adverse repercussions on the food security situation particularly of the developing countries.


Food security of the developing countries depends not only on their increased domestic production but also on their capacity to import food and essential agricultural inputs for investment in agriculture.

Free and growing export trade is one of the important foundations for establishing food security. But the continuing and aggravating external constraints like protectionism, the heavy burden of debt servicing, weak demand and low prices of their export products, lack of purchasing capacity and access to supplies, etc. are adversely affecting food security, particularly of the low-income food-deficit countries.

In order therefore to improve food security of the low-income food-deficit countries through increased production and import of food and essential agricultural inputs. We therefore stress the need for import liberalization, improvement of access to markets for developing countries and removal of other external constraints so that these countries can earn necessary foreign exchange for importing required food and essential agricultural imports to inputs domestic production.

For improving food security of the developing countries it is also essential that the IMF Cereal Financing Facility should be liberalized to enable more developing parts od the world and there is facility for importing not only food but also essential agricultural inputs like fertilizers.

At a time when most of the low-income countries are faced with a chronic and grim food shortage and food insecurity situation in Africa and other developing countries of the world, there is more crucial need for investment in food production and agricultural development, the decline in flow in the concessional part of external assistance to this sector is a cause of particular concern to my delegation, because it will further adversely affect these countries that rely heavily on such concessional external assistance for investment in their food production and agricultural development. It is therefore urgent that the present declining trend of concessional assistance should not only be reversed but substantially increased for investment in agriculture and improvement of food security of these countries.

In this connection my delegation would like to reiterate its views that the low level of replenishment of IDA resources as well as the present uncertainty and probable low level of replenishment of IFAD resources will also have serious implication for the investment and development of the food and agricultural sector, and this will further aggravate food insecurity.

We would also like to emphasize that, for improving world food security, a new International Wheat Agreement with necessary economic stock and price provisions should be negotiated early, after taking into account the interest of developing countries. In this connection my delegation also agrees with the emphasis given by the Committee to the value of regional sub-regional cooperation among developing countries for strengthening their self reliance and food security.

Turning to the subject "Assessment of the Contribution of Food Aid to Food Security" my delegation welcomes and commends the Director-General for his usual initiative in submitting this valuable study in his quest for improving food security and as a follow-up to his famous report on the revised concept of world food security.

In view of the critical and worsening food supply situation in many developing countries food aid will continue to remain as an essential and increasingly important component of development assistance. Moreover, in view of the controversy about the impact of food aid, this initiative on the part of the Director-General in his constant search for ways and means to increase the effectiveness of food aid as a development resource is timely and commendable.

The Study made specific proposals for action by the recipient and donor countries, as well as actions to be taken at multi-lateral level for enhancing the contribution of food aid to increasing production, stabilizing supplies and improving access to food by the poor in the developing countries.

Our delegation to the last session of the CFS considered these proposals as very practical and important measures for enhancing the contribution of food aid to improve food security, and supported these proposals in the Committee Session. Our delegation therefore reiterates its support to these proposals. We strongly fool that if these proposals are implemented food aid will continue to play a more important and positive role in support of each of the three components of the concept of food security.


However, while approving all these proposals for action, my delegation would like to emphasize a few points,among others, particularly on the proposals of integration of development food aid within national food security programmes and strategies, promoting triangular transactions and for providing more cash resources for the purpose, multi-year country programmes in respect of development food aid, prepositioning of stocks for food emergency aid, establishment of national preparedness plans and early warning system, strengthening the FSAS of FAO, and raising the present level of FAO and IEFR is also essential to make it more predictable and dependable.

In this connection my delegation also wholeheartedly reiterates its support to the Committee's request for earmarking reserves or funds in the interim system of national food reserves to ensure meeting the urgent import requirements of low-income food-deficit countries in the event of food supply shortfalls.

The idea of a food aid insurance scheme is of great interest to my delegation as the scheme is intended to enhance food security of low-income food deficit countries. We would therefore request FAO Secretariat to submit a more detailed and developed proposal in this regard to a future session of the CFS.

Lastly, the Global Information and Early Warning System on food and agriculture has proved its worth, its fullness and unique role, and hence my delegation strongly supports the proposals for strengthening the system in the 1986-87 biennium.

W.A.F. GRABISCH (Germany, Federal Republic of): At its Tenth Session in April 1985 the Committee on World Food Security made again a useful contribution to the international discussion about world food security. This is fully appreciated by my Government. My delegation particularly welcomes the objectives and realistic picture given in the document in assessing the present situation of world food security. The increase in world cereal stocks in 1984-85 to a level which is considered by the FAO Secretariat to be adequate for world food security, is a positive incentive. This also applies to the substantial efforts made by donor countries to improve the food situation in Africa.

The study for determining the contribution of food aid to world food security which was prepared by the FAO Secretariat in cooperation with CFA and WFP is in our view useful. Regarding a follow-up to that study, and with reference to paragraph 38 of the document before us, we should like to stress that such follow-up must be pursued in the competent forums.

We agree with a great number of other conclusions which are spelled out in the document, but there are also other proposals in the document about which we have a certain amount of scepticism and which will have to be further discussed, as stated by Dr Islam. Let me mention the following: the prepositioning of food stocks in hunger-prone areas; the establishment of food insurance schemes, as well as the earmarking of stocks or funds for aid purposes.

As regards the proposal for multi-year country programmes of food aid contained in paragraph 41 of the document, I should like to restate that my Government's budgetary and approval procedures restrict such multi-year country programming of food aid.

Concerning a suggestion for separating the international agreement from the food aid convention, we continue to hold the view that these important elements should not be separated from each other. We continue to maintain our constructive position towards the negotiation of a new international agreement.

As regards the suggestion of strengthening the International Emergency Food Reserve by a standby pledge in the amount of 1.5 million tons, my Government maintains its position that we see no urgent need for such action. In 1984 the International Emergency Food Reserve again had a surplus, and in 1985 the level of that Reserve was surplus by February of this year. This shows that donors have responded effectively to an emergency situation without having previously raised the level of that Reserve. Therefore we should like to restate that the volatile character of that Reserve and its level should be kept at its present level.

G. BULA HOYOS (Colombia): Nos complace muy sinceramente intervenir bajo la dirección de nuestro distinguido colega y amigo Marco Francisci di Baschi, Embajador de Italia. La magnífica presentación del profesor Islam facilita nuestra intervención, que va a limitarse a los asuntos que requieren la atención del Consejo que aparecen en la primera pagina de este documento.

Antes de hacer algunas referencia a esos puntos específicos quisiéramos compartir con el colega y amigo Wolfgang A.F. Grabisch, de la República Federal de Alemania, la importancia del dialogo que pueda contribuir a definir opiniones importantes. Esperamos que las propuestas sobre las cuales


nuestro colega Wolfgang A.F. Grabisch expreso tímidamente algunas consideraciones puedan ser, como el lo dijo, estudiadas mas a fondo para que desaparezca su escepticismo. Nos complace que sobre el párrafo 41 la República Federal de Alemania haya tomado medidas presupuestarias; como siempre, es el país sumamente constructivo y positivo en la cooperación internacional.

Compartimos también las inquietudes del colegas Wolfgang A.F. Grabisch de la República Federal de Alemania sobre la necesidad de que se elabore un nuevo Acuerdo Internacional sobre el Trigo; el actual Acuerdo, que data de 1971, esta ya muy superado y ha sido generalmente reconocido como inútil. Sabemos que la Comunidad Económica Europea adopto una actitud muy positiva al solicitar a una de las ultimas reuniones del Consejo Internacional del Trigo que se llevara a cabo un grupo de reflexion para ocuparse de las posibilidades de reanudar el dialogo para elaborar un nuevo Acuerdo Internacional sobre el Trigo. Si el Observador de la CEE pudiera informar a este Consejo acerca de que rumbo ha tomado esa propuesta de esa importante comunidad creo que nos haría un favor que le agradeceríamos.

En relación con los problemas de hambre y malnutrición que afectan a millones de seres humanos en Africa creo que ya a la luz del debate amplio que celebramos ayer, el Consejo va a reconocer y a apoyar los esfuerzos que viene haciendo el Director General por mejorar la situación africana, y asimismo convendría que en nuestro Informe apoyemos el llamado que aparece en el párrafo 11 de este documento, a fin de que la asistencia a los países africanos se ofrezca de manera realmente eficaz.

El párrafo 1-3 se refiere a los niveles de la ayuda alimentaria. No compartimos las opiniones del colega Wolfgang A.F. Grabisch, de la República Federal de Alemania, sobre ese párrafo 13; por el contrario, pensamos que ha llegado ya la hora de que este Consejo apoye la estimación FAO/PMA de 20 millones de toneladas de ayuda para 1985. Los 10 millones de la Conferencia Mundial de la Alimentación quedaron atrás hace once anos, las necesidades se han multiplicado muchísimo mas. El objetivo de la RAIE también debe ser aumentado a un mínimo de 2 millones de toneladas. Este y todos los objetivos han sido rebasados sustancialmente y deben ajustarse a las reales necesidades. Proponemos que el Consejo en su Informe apoye estos objetivos revisados.

Sobre la RAIE en el CPA el Director General hizo una importante propuesta acerca de un segundo componente, debe ser analizada y puesta en práctica. Sobre la contribución de la ayuda alimentaria la delegación de Colombia opina que este Consejo debe reiterar la conveniencia de que esa ayuda contribuya a obtener los tres elementos básicos de la seguridad alimentaria citados en el documento.

Los párrafos 33 y 34 tratan de la función de los gobiernos beneficiarios. Apoyamos la conveniencia de que la ayuda se integre en los Planes Nacionales de Desarrollo y de que los gobiernos adopten medidas para lograr la mayor eficiencia de la ayuda, pero la delegación de Colombia considera que todo ello debe ser potestativo de los gobiernos y adoptado por cada país dentro de su libre soberanía.

Creemos que la FAO, como ya lo viene haciendo, debe apoyar particularmente a los países de bajos ingresos a fin de que éstos establezcan programas nacionales de preparación y sistema de alerta. En general, la FAO, los demás organismos y los donantes deben ofrecer asistencia financiera y técnica que complemente los esfuerzos de los países beneficiarios para mejorar sus infraestructuras generalmente deficientes.

La delegación de Colombia concede gran importancia a la función del sector forestal en la seguridad alimentaria, de lo cual se trata a partir del párrafo 68 en este documento. Estamos de acuerdo en que se necesita una mayor integración entre la agricultura y la silvicultura. Pensamos que el Departamento de Montes de la FAO debe ser reforzado para que nuestra Organización intensifique su labor sobre sistemas mixtos de producción forestal, agrícola y ganadera, como lo dijo el distinguido representante de Bangladesh.

Pensamos que el Sistema Mundial de Información y Alerta de la FAO es una de las mejores realizaciones de nuestra Organización; por lo tanto, apoyamos el contenido del párrafo 85 acerca de la conveniencia de que se dictaminen atentamente las recomendaciones y sugerencias hechas por la Consulta de expertos de marzo pasado.

Finalmente, la delegación de Colombia cumple el imperativo político y moral de señalar ante este Consejo un hecho que afecta a la seguridad alimentaria de un país de la región de América Latina y el Caribe.

El Sistema económico latinoamericano, SELA, en reunión extraordinaria del pasado 14 de mayo celebrada en Caracas, Venezuela, adoptó la decisión 222 mediante la cual, cito: "se reafirmó el derecho soberano de todas las naciones a transitar su propio camino en lo económico, social y político en paz y libertad, libre de presiones, agresiones y amenazas externas".


Igualmente el SELA reafirmó la condena de los Estados Miembros a la aplicación contra cualquiera de ellos de medidas económicas coercitivas que amenacen su soberanía y su seguridad económica y atenten contra sus derechos a un desarrollo independiente.

El Artículo 6 de la misma decisión del SELA, dice, y cito: "instar al Gobierno de los Estados Unidos de America a revocar el embargo comercial total y las otras medidas coercitivas adoptadas en contra de Nicaragua, así como de aplicar en contra de los Estados Miembros cualquier medida violatoria de los principios y normas que rigen en la comunidad internacional."

La delegación de Colombia piensa que un embargo comercial como ése afecta gravemente la seguridad alimentaria de un país en desarrollo y no contribuye al logro de la paz en Centroamérica, en favor de la cual, a través del Grupo de CONTADORA, Colombia, México, Venezuela y Panamá, están seriamente empeñados. Por ello, la delegación de Colombia propone que este Consejo, eminentemente político, apoye en su informe esa decisión de la gran mayoría de los países de América Latina y el Caribe.

LE PRESIDENT: Je remercie la Délégation de la Colombie et l'Ambassadeur Bula Hoyos. Je comprends son intervention mais je voudrais rappeler que je ne suis pas tout à fait d'accord sur le fait que ce Conseil soit l'endroit le meilleur pour soulever cette question. En tout cas je le remercie parce qu'il a soulevé cette question d'une façon exacte. Mais je ne voudrais pas que par le biais de cet argument éminemment politique il y ait des liaisons entre la part commerciale et la sécurité alimentaire. Je pense que cela vaudrait mieux pour l'atmosphère de nos travaux de ne pas insister sur cet argument.

J.R. LOPEZ PORTILLO (México): La delegación de México reitera en este Consejo la importancia que concede a las labores del Comité de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial como órgano de composición universal en el que pueden discutirse todos los factores y problemas que le atañen y conformar, dentro de un contexto amplio y enriquecido por ese análisis completo, las estrategias válidas que vayan encauzando la acción de la organización.

Durante el décimo período de sesiones del Comité se puso en evidencia el agudo contraste entre la escasez alimentaria en muchas zonas, las inmensas disponibilidades en el plano mundial y la excesiva concentración de suministros de cereales en América del Norte. Mi delegación propuso entonces, y lo reitera ahora, que la FAO elaborase un estudio sobre las implicaciones de la reducción en la producción del principal productor de cereales, ya que esta medida puede tener consecuencias muy graves, si no nefastas, y debemos estar preparados para ella.

El informe que nos ocupa nos satisface, ya que refleja adecuadamente las discusiones que se produjeron en el Comité; sin embargo, consideramos útil para este Consejo y sobre todo para la Conferencia, enfatizar algunos de los puntos más importantes que se trataron.

En primer lugar, señalar la interacción que se da entre diferentes Comités que dependen de este Consejo. A mi delegación le ha complacido notar en el resumen del Programa de Labores y Presupuesto para el próximo bienio la prioridad que se concede en el Programa principal de agricultura a la utilización y producción de insumos. Consideramos que el enfoque de la FAO es muy válido, ya que el incremento de la producción, nuestro principal objetivo, se verá facilitado por la utilización de esos insumos. Ahora bien, esta propuesta de la FAO viene a corroborar una posición que mi delegación ha mantenido y, lo que es más importante, la traduce en hechos. Para ser congruentes no nos queda más que plasmar en la teoría lo que ya estamos haciendo en la práctica. Reitero, por tanto, nuestra propuesta de incluir en el concepto ampliado de seguridad alimentaria a los insumos agrícolas, es decir, fertilizantes, plaguicidas, semillas mejoradas y créditos, entre otros.

Consideramos también, ya que nos estamos refiriendo al Programa de Labores y Presupuesto, que es necesario reforzar el Sistema Mundial de Información y Alerta, dada su gran utilidad para los Estados Miembros. No se puede resolver ningún problema si no se cuenta con la información adecuada. Los medios de acción son básicos y el sistema sin duda nos ayudará a tomar las decisiones oportunas en el momento adecuado y tendrá, además, un efecto positivo en otro de nuestros objetivos, es decir, la cooperación económica entre países en desarrollo.

Con la misma intención de conectar nuestros planteamientos con la puesta en práctica efectiva de ellos, apoyamos la importancia que se da al sector forestal en la Seguridad Alimentaria con los beneficios que pueden representar tanto directamente a través de la producción de alimentos como indirectamente a través de la creación de empleos y la generación de energía. A mi delegación le preocupa el deterioro del ecosistema y el inevitable incremento del uso de los bosques para la agricultura y, por tanto, está dispuesta a participar y apoyar todo esfuerzo que se haga para que este importante sector sea debidamente considerado. El mejor ejemplo de ello será la celebración, a principios del mes de julio, del Congreso Forestal Mundial a celebrarse en la ciudad de México. Esperamos tener la honra de dar la bienvenida a todos los Miembros del Consejo y, naturalmente, de la FAO, a ese importante evento.


Nos congratulamos de que este Consejo haya propuesto el Pacto de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial, que es un instrumento serio que deberá traducir la voluntad de la comunidad internacional de resolver el problema del hambre en el mundo. En este sentido consideramos que el 40 aniversario de nuestra Organización no puede ser causa de festejos, sino de reflexión, para tratar de encontrar fórmulas prácticas que nos permitan el logro de nuestros objetivos. La base teórica de los mismos sería el reconocimiento por los Estados Miembros de FAO y la proclamación consecuente por la Organización del Derecho a la Alimentación. No hemos encontrado un solo instrumento internacional donde este derecho prioritario esté consagrado como tal, a pesar de que lo hemos reiterado enfáticamente en todas las ocasiones en que ha sido posible. Se habla siempre de la eliminación del hambre, que viene a ser lo mismo, pero en términos negativos, o bien de la alimentación, como parte integrante del bienestar. Propongo, pues, enfáticamente, en nombre de mi Gobierno, que el lema que guíe los trabajos del 40 aniversario, sea el Derecho a la Alimentación y los mecanismos para hacerlo efectivo.

Esta intervención no estaría completa si no nos refiriéramos a la ayuda alimentaria, ya que fuimos una de las muchas delegaciones que consideramos que el Comité de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial, debía tratar este tema, que ha cobrado tanta importancia en los últimos tiempos. Es de todos conocida la posición de México en cuanto a la ayuda alimentaria. Creemos que puede resumirse simplemente en nuestra insistencia en que, para evitar sus efectos negativos, debe estar integrada en los planes nacionales de desarrollo. Ahora bien, y lo mencionaba el distinguido delegado del Senegal, este concepto es ya generalmente aceptado; sin embargo, estamos concientes de que su aplicación se complica enormemente cuando se trata de la ayuda de emergencia y la actual crisis de Africa nos ha demostrado que la situación de la alimentación en el mundo está tan deteriorada que es necesario utilizar el recurso de la ayuda alimentaria tanto para fines de desarrollo como para fines humanitarios de sobrevivencia. Esto es un hecho y desafortunadamente no se prevé que en un futuro próximo desaparezcan las condiciones que la hacen necesaria. Nosotros hemos imputado muy buena parte de la responsabilidad a la inexistencia de un Nuevo Orden Económico Internacional. Es indispensable, por tanto, que aun la ayuda de emergencia se inscriba en alguna estrategia de largo plazo para que sus efectos coadyuven a superar el problema. Es en este punto cuando debemos insistir en que la ayuda alimentaria forma parte de la estrategia global de seguridad alimentaria; la interacción y la interdependencia entre el Comité de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial y el Comité de Políticas y Programas de Ayuda Alimentaria es evidente. Me parece tan evidente que la ayuda alimentaria beneficia no sólo a los receptores, sino también a los donantes. Analicémosla, pues, conjuntamente para tratar de que produzca solamente beneficios, no para una organización u otra o un grupo de países diferente a otro, sino para la humanidad entera. Me temo, señor Presidente, que repetiré este mismo llamado en los temas 10 y 11 de nuestra agenda.

Reiteramos nuestro interés en que se establezca un nuevo Acuerdo Internacional sobre el Trigo, como medio fundamental de la estrategia internacional de seguridad alimentaria. Coincidimos, por tanto, con lo dicho por la delegación de Colombia. Asimismo concordamos con el aumento del objetivo de la RAIE, así como también a elevar el objetivo de ayuda alimentaria de 20 millones de toneladas, como ha sido mencionado.

Los trabajos y la orientación futura del Comité no aparecen de una manera muy clara en el Programa de Labores. Independientemente de cualquier aclaración que la Secretaría pueda hacer al respecto, la delegación de México propone que se dé seguimiento de una manera más amplia al informe que el Director General presento al octavo período de sesiones. En su oportunidad apoyamos ese informe. La tarea de seguir identificando y negociando las medidas a nivel nacional, regional y mundial que podrían ser aceptables, reafirmará el papel preponderante que es obvio muchos países concedemos.

Finalmente al reiterar el principio de no usar los alimentos como instrumento de presión política - este Consejo, así como la Conferencia de la FAO, han hecho referencia a estas cuestiones fundamentales que tienen un carácter político evidentemente pero que afectan estrictamente las condiciones del desarrollo y la posibilidad de desarrollo de la seguridad alimentaria y también ante acontecimientos recientes que conllevaron a imponer un embargo contra un país centroamericano - México expresa su grave preocupación de que los procesos de negociación en el área hayan sufrido un grave deterioro y con ello también que la seguridad alimentaria de ese país centroamericano se vea seriamente amenazado. México insiste en dirimir las diferencias entre los Estados por la vía de la negociación y el diálogo político, único medio para superar las tensiones prevalecientes. Aplicar la coerción económica no resulta compatible con los objetivos del Grupo de Contadora. México reafirma la obligación de todos los Estados de cumplir con los principios de Derecho Internacional establecidos por la Carta de Naciones Unidas, y por la Carta de la Organización-de Estados Americanos y consagrados también en el contexto de Seguridad Alimentaria. Igualmente llamamos la atención sobre la Resolución 39/210 de la Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas y la 222 del SELA, que repudian este tipo de acciones, como ha mencionado ya la delegación de Colombia.

Para terminar, México exhorta a las partes interesadas en la solución pacífica de las cuestiones centroamericanas, a renovar la gestión diplomática como único instrumento político que permitirá, en la dignidad y en el respeto recíprocos, relaciones amistosas que destierren el uso de la fuerza y el de los alimentos como instrumento de presión política, que restablezcan la paz, la cooperación entre las naciones del área y que garantice en general las condiciones de seguridad alimentaria que todos aquí deseamos para nuestros pueblos.


LE PRESIDENT: Je remercie l'Ambassadeur Portillo. Avant de donner la parole à l'orateur suivant je voudrais dire que nous continuerons nos travaux jusqu'à six heures; normalement ce devait être 5 heures, mais puisque nous sommes très en retard, comme l'a fait remarquer plusieurs fois notre Président, je pense qu'il convient de poursuivre un peu plus avant nos travaux, d'autant plus qu'à la clôture de cette session il y aura la réunion du Comité de rédaction. Je donne maintenant la parole aux Etats-Unis d'Amérique pour un point d'ordre.

POINT OF ORDER
POINT D'ORDRE
PUNTO DE ORDEN

R.D. KAUZLARICH (United States of America): I regret very much having to take the floor and preempt other speakers but since two of the previous speakers have mentioned the United States by name I thought it only right that I reply at this time.

I regret very much that these sorts of simply political issues have been introduced into this forum. I think that it does not do credit to the Food and Agriculture Organization to see such issues introduced in a discussion that takes up such serious matters as we are taking up.

In terms of the embargo that the United States has placed against Nicaragua, the two previous speakers and others who may take up this point should clearly understand that donations of food, medicines and clothing are exempt from the embargo. I think, as our actions elsewhere in the world have demonstrated, the United States believes that in cases of emergency we should help alleviate the suffering of hungry people without regard to the policies of their government. I hope that with this intervention we can put aside this issue and continue on with the very important and significant work of this Council.

POINT OF ORDER
POINT D'ORDRE
PUNTO DE ORDEN

L. ARIZA HIDALGO (Cuba): Lamentablemente tenemos que expresar, que no comprendemos por parte de la delegación norteamericana la expresión del distinguido delegado de México, que no mentó su nombre, y la delegación de Colombia ha expresado un párrafo de un Consejo extraordinario SELA, pero quiero expresar una cuestión que me parece que puede aclarar esta situación. La caracterización política de esto no lo niego. ¿Por qué no lo negamos?. Porque realmente es la utilización política de los alimentos como arma, porque un embargo comercial que impide llegar a puertos los alimentos es una utilización política de las armas y de los alimentos. Nosotros queremos decir que la Asamblea de Naciones Unidas en su 39 período de sesiones, en la Resolución 210, aprobó una Resolución referida a las medidas de coacción económica que con motivos político o económicos aplican los países desarrollados contra países en desarrollo. Esto es acuerdo de Naciones Unidas. Estamos totalmente de acuerdo que esto es un ámbito eminentemente político, pero su aplicación está en la Resolución, en los organismos del Sistema de Naciones Unidas, incluida la FAO, que tiene especialmente problemas de alimentación; una señalización de esta situación para que soberanamente la FAO pueda ejercer su derecho de alimentar a todos y no solamente a los que políticamente un país decida hacer, no podemos negarlo en el ámbito de la FAO.

LE PRESIDENT: J'ai déjà exprimé mon point de vue sur cette question. Je pense que, fondamentalement, c'est une question politique et je n'ai pas la conviction que nous soyons un organe e'minemment politique. Ce n'est pas l'Assemblée générale des Nations Unies ou d'autres instances où ces questions pourraient être traitées correctement. J'invite donc les délégations qui sont intéressées par cette question à la développer dans des termes très généraux. Nous n'avons rien à gagner à une politisation du problème. Je ne pense pas qu'il faille insister sur les effets de l'embargo. Personnellement je ne les connais pas, mais je pense que nous devons nous en tenir au fait que notre Conseil n'est pas un organe politique. Je vous invite donc à vous modérer sur cette question.

J'ai l'intention de poursuivre nos travaux jusqu'à six heures parce que nous sommes en retard. Tout de suite après la clôture de cette session il y aura la réunion du Comité de rédaction. Je donne la parole au délégué de l'Argentine et j'espère que tout se passera calmement.


G.E. GONZALEZ (Argentina): En primer lugar permítame expresar nuestra satisfacción de verle a usted, Sr. Presidente, presidiendo esta importante sesión del Consejo. Deseo también agradecer la muy clara y concisa presentación del tema que nos realizara hace poco el profesor Islam.

Mi delegación entiende que los principales temas involucrados dentro del punto 6.2 han sido objeto de un largo y profundo análisis en el Comité de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial, y en esa oportunidad mi delegación se refirió ampliamente a cada uno de ellos, por lo que me limitaré ahora, teniendo en cuenta sus palabras y con mis mejores deseos de cooperar con la Presidencia, a señalar y a remarcar sólo algunos de los aspectos en los que tengo particular interés.

La Argentina obviamente apoya el contenido del Informe y en este sentido deseamos destacar la validez del párrafo 14, en especial lo referente a la necesidad de liberalizar el comercio internacional de productos agrícolas que, como ya se ha señalado al discutir el tema 4 de nuestra agenda, se ve gravemente perturbado por la aplicación de medidas proteccionistas y otras cláusulas análogas. Asimismo se reitera dentro del capítulo correspondiente a la contribución de la ayuda alimentaria a la seguridad alimentaria mundial, lo señalado en el párrafo 40 de dicho informe sobre las posibilidades que ofrecen las transacciones triangulares. Creemos que la FAO puede contribuir positivamente mediante la promoción de este tipo de operaciones difundiendo información acerca de las disponibilidades de alimentos en los países en desarrollo.

Reiteramos también la importancia que mi país asigna a los párrafos 49 y 50 en el sentido de fortalecer la relación complementaria entre el Comité de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial, el Comité de Políticas de Ayuda Alimentaria, CPA, y también con el Consejo Mundial de Alimentos.

Finalmente deseo dejar expresa constancia de nuestro especial interés y apoyo para que la FAO continúe reforzando sus trabajos en el campo agrosilvoforestal como un instrumento de gran importancia para alcanzar la seguridad alimentaria mundial.

En otro orden de ideas permítame decirle, que lamento tener que intervenir después de dos mociones de orden, pero cumplo una instrucción de mi Gobierno en el sentido de señalar nuestra preocupación por la aplicación de medidas económicas para un país de nuestra región, ya que a nuestro entender afecta a la seguridad alimentaria de dicho país. Quiero destacar que la República Argentina no acepta como válida la aplicación de medidas coercitivas de carácter económico y político que son incompatibles con la disposición de la Carta de Naciones Unidas de la Organización de los Estados Americanos y el Acuerdo General sobre Aranceles Aduaneros y Comercio, así como de numerosas Resoluciones de la Asamblea General, de decisiones del Consejo Latinoamericano del Sistema Económico Latinoamericano y de recomendaciones que hemos adoptado en este mismo foro.

Al respecto además de deplorar la aplicación de esas medidas, recordamos el párrafo 4 de la Resolución 39/210 de la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas por la que se solicita a las organizaciones internacionales que informe al Secretario General acerca de las medidas económicas incompatibles con los instrumentos jurídicos antes mencionados. Quiero asegurarle, Sr. Presidente, a usted y a todos los miembros de este Consejo que esta posición de principio de la República Argentina ha sido expuesta en diversos foros ya que estamos firmemente convencidos de que los alimentos no deben ser utilizados como instrumentos de presión política. En ese sentido apoyamos lo señalado por los distinguidos Embajadores de Colombia y de México de la misma manera que apoyamos en París hace pocos días la inclusión de este tema en el Informe del Consejo Mundial de Alimentos.

H. ZANNETIS (Cyprus): During the last session of the CFS many interesting issues were discussed, as is reflected in its report and precisely introduced by Dr Islam. While being in agreement with the Committee's conclusions following the discussions of the last two days, there are only two points in the report to which I would like to refer.

In considering the role of forestry in food security the Committee expressed concern at the scale on which afforestation is taking place in the tropics. The delegation of Cyprus fully shares this concern.

The fact that the CFS has unanimously recommended work to be carried out by FAO for the improvement of the situation (paragraph 72) and the need for education, training and creation of awareness (paragraph 77) is reason enough, we believe, for the Council to give its strong approval to these recommendations.

Another important item to which the Committee has devoted its time is the review of the purposes and operational modalities of the Global Information and Early Warning System on food and agriculture. After an in-depth review of the performance of the system the Committee expressed its appreciation about the way the system has been operating. The message that the Committee is sending to the Council for the future operation of the system is clearly stated in paragraphs 84 and 85. The delegation of Cyprus fully supports these recommendations and hopes that the Council will endorse them so that the system will be strengthened in the 1986-87 biennium.


J.M. WATSON (Panamá): Sepa usted, Sr. Embajador de Italia ante FAO, Sr. Francisci di Baschi que nos complace sobremanera que en su condición de Vicepresidente dirija los debates de este Consejo.

La delegación de Panamá al reafirmar su tradición de país amante de la paz y siguiendo los lincamientos y principios del Grupo de CONTADORA, que en estos momentos se retine en la capital de Panamá, y que realmente representa la única alternativa posible de paz duradera para la región Centroamericana, desea manifestar su total desacuerdo con que los alimentos sean utilizados como instrumento de presión política y de prácticas coercitivas de cualquier parte que provengan y vengan a afectar la seguridad alimentaria de cualquier país del mundo, en especial de la región de América Latina. Es indudable, sin demérito de los otros asuntos fundamentales tratados por la FAO, la importancia creciente de los aspectos de la seguridad alimentaria dentro de la temática de esta organización; ello no podría ser de otra manera sobre todo desde la aceptación por parte de los Estados Miembros del nuevo concepto ampliado sobre seguridad alimentaria y de su correlación con los objetivos del Nuevo Orden Económico Internacional.

En efecto,la seguridad alimentaria ha dejado de ser objeto de divagación académica y ya no representa sólo la estabilidad y la continuidad del mercado común de cereales, ni significa tampoco simplemente encontrar los mecanismos que garanticen la existencia de reservas para el abastecimiento mundial de dichos cereales durante situaciones de crisis o sencillamente el alcance mediante la aplicación de medidas nacionales, la estabilidad de los precios de los alimentos en el mercado interno. Concediendo su justo valor a estos aspectos, el concepto de seguridad alimentaria viene considerado dentro de un contexto más amplio que tiende no solamente a disminuir la dependencia alimentaria de fuentes externas no siempre seguras y continuas, como la experiencia nos demuestra, por nuestra vulnerabilidad política y económica, sino también a lograr el desarrollo socioeconómico de nuestros países como aporte fundamental para alcanzar el fin último de todo proceso de desarrollo: el bienestar de los pueblos.

La delegación de Panamá luego de esta breve premisa necesaria para la correcta interpretación de las preocupaciones y comentarios que el análisis del documento CL 87/10 y sus anexos le merecen, desea, en primer lugar, insistir sobre la paradoja por todos conocida de que mientras algunos países, especialmente en el continente africano, luchan desesperadamente contra el hambre, en términos generales en el mundo reina la abundancia, lo que según el documento CL 87/2 Sup.1 representa un incremento del 4,4 por ciento de la producción mundial de los alimentos básicos durante el año de 1984 en relación con el año anterior.

Resaltamos lo expresado en el párrafo 8, del documento objeto de nuestro debate, en el sentido de que si bien se preveía que las existencias remanentes mundiales de cereales se mantendrían a un nivel que la Secretaría de la FAO consideraba suficiente para la seguridad alimentaria mundial, esas existencias estaban sumamente concentradas en unos pocos países y que se consideraba que no estaban realmente a disposición de los países que las necesitaban.

Nuestra delegación considera propicia la ocasión para reconocer una vez más la oportuna y correcta participación que en el contexto de la crisis alimentaria que padece Africa, y muy especialmente 21 países de esta región, ha tenido y tiene la FAO a través de sus numerosas actividades. En tal sentido estimamos oportuno evidenciar el enfoque que se le ha venido dando a la solución de la grave crisis africana mediante la rehabilitación de la agricultura con miras a resolver problemas estructurales heredados que han significado, entre otras cosas, la destrucción de recursos tales como el suelo, los bosques y el agotamiento de las aguas.

Destacamos asimismo los esfuerzos tanto a nivel nacional, como regional, que estamos haciendo los países en vías de desarrollo en materia de seguridad alimentaria, como se puso de manifiesto durante la reunión del Comité de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial en su décimo período de sesiones, estos esfuerzos que como todos sabemos se han venido dando bajo difíciles situaciones económicas y financieras, con problemas de alto costo del servicio de la deuda, proteccionismo creciente y deterioro de nuestras relaciones de intercambio, está incidiendo negativamente en la economía, no sólo de los países de bajos ingresos y déficit de alimentos, sino también en la de países en vías de desarrollo. Por estas razones resaltamos la necesidad de que los países desarrollados al formular políticas agrícolas o alimentarias presten especial atención a las necesidades en materia de seguridad alimentaria en los países en vías de desarrollo.

Por otra parte insistimos en la necesidad de profundizar en el análisis sobre la evolución alarmante y negativa de la asistencia internacional, especialmente en lo relativo a la disminución de la cuantía de los compromisos oficiales de ayuda a la agricultura, así como al crecimiento de la ayuda en condiciones de favor, a la disminución de los niveles de recursos de las Asociaciones Internacionales de Fomento, AIF, así como a la drástica reducción de los recursos del FIDA en su segunda reposición.


Para esta delegación es un deber reconocer, como ya lo hemos hecho en otras ocasiones, los esfuerzos que realiza la FAO en la promoción mundial, sea en el marco conceptual, como en el operativo de todo lo referente a la seguridad alimentaria en el mundo, y muy particularmente el esfuerzo realizado en lo referente a la interrelación existente entre este concepto y el de ayuda alimentaria.

En efecto, para nuestra delegación, aunque, como ya lo señalamos al inicio de nuestra intervención, el concepto de seguridad alimentaria se extiende mucho más allá del de ayuda alimentaria, queda bien claro que se viene a representar en muchos casos un elemento fundamental para el logro de dicha seguridad.

Así, pues, para nosotros es evidente el hecho de que, aunque puedan ser criticados los métodos 'o sistemas con los cuales se ejecutan algunas veces la ayuda, los principios de la misma siguen siendo válidos y representan, si es utilizada adecuadamente y con una correcta motivación, un importante recurso para promover la producción, el desarrollo social, estabilizar el consumo y mejorar la nutrición en los países en desarrollo. Sin embargo, la ayuda como tal, y es obvio, no es suficiente, por lo que viene a ser de vital importancia integrar dicha ayuda con otros recursos destinados a promover la utilización de la misma para que sirva a los principios de los componentes básicos de la seguridad alimentaria antes citada.

Consideramos igualmente pertinente el reforzamiento del Sistema Mundial de Información y Alerta sobre la alimentación y la agricultura y reiteramos nuestro decidido apoyo a sus trabajos a fin de que. incrementen su función de vigilar continuamente la evolución de los cultivos a nivel mundial y nacional y de alertar las comunidades internacionales cuando se vean amenazados los suministros de alimentos.

P. PONGPAET (Thailand): Mr Chairman, may I first congratulate you on becoming Chairman during the deliberations on this item. My delegation wishes to thank Dr Islam for his comprehensive introduction of the document.

From the report, we can see that the Committee on World Food Security made substantial progress in its endeavour to achieve a better level of food security. From studying the report, my delegation has a few comments to make. First of all, we share the concern expressed in paragraphs 10 to 13 concerning the food situation in Africa. As a developing food-exporting country, Thailand can only respond humbly to the calls for increased assistance to the continent of Africa. Apart from our contribution to IEFR recently, and our bilateral contribution to certain African countries, Thailand is prepared to extend our aid programme towards the developing countries in Africa. The details of the programme have already been submitted to the FAO Secretariat.

Secondly, my delegation fully supports the setting up of the national early warning system which should be linked in as part of the network of the Global Information and Early Warning System. We support the proposal of the Director-General for the strengthening of this early warning system during the 1986-87 biennium.

Thirdly, in paragraph 40 we entirely agree with the support for promoting triangular transactions. These will save transportation costs and will ensure, moreover, that food aid commodities are compatible with the traditional food habits of the recipient. We agree that FAO can make a useful contribution by disseminating information on food surpluses in developing countries.

My delegation fully agrees with paragraph 74. Natural foods from forests, such as wild animals and plants, are much more important in the food supplies of many countries. To give an example, wildlife farming programmes, such as to preserve and expand one of the pheasant species in Thailand, have proved satisfactory. This has also contributed to family income by the recreational utilization of wildlife resources, which has proved to be successful in our country. We are grateful for the assistance of FAO, and hope for continuing support in the project. In conclusion, my delegation endorses the Report of the Tenth Session of the Committee on World Food Security, and commends its splendid preparation.

P. ALLEYNE (Trinidad and Tobago): My delegation is also quite happy to see you, Mr Chairman, conducting this session of the Council. We are pleased to contribute our views on this critical issue of world food security.


I have had the experience of at least two FAO Conferences and various meetings of the World Food Council. You will therefore understand my chagrin when I realized that in spite of the many laudable contributions which have been made, and continue to be, on the basic issue of providing food for all mankind, it is still very far from being fulfilled. Of course, we fully accept that we must press on assiduously with the fight against hunger, since it still remains with us. Item 6 of our agenda highlights the enormity of the problem we face today; we cannot let up, quite obviously.

Those of us gathered here as representatives of various governments and organizations - indeed, even the full Conference later this year - cannot achieve meaningful action on the issue of food if we are not truly sensitive to the particular problems and concerns of individual nation states. Nevertheless, we would not be true to ourselves if we did not acknowledge the significance of the basic fact expressed in paragraph 8 of document CL 87/10. This refers to: "... a sharp contract between the existence of ample supplies at the global level and of widespread and acute food shortages in many developing countries". It is a fact that stocks are in certain areas; but the real issue focusses on how to create and to sustain a comparable capability within countries of the developing world.

My delegation wishes to give full weight to those proposals aimed at enhancing the capability of developing countries to produce more indigenous food types. The level of production must be at least close to that which is required for minimum security. Vulnerability and dependency of sizeable proportions of the population on imported food must be reduced.

I am aware that trade between developed and developing countries must continue to be influenced by questions of comparative advantage in some areas - availability and use of land space, water supplies, climatic conditions, and so on. In addition, some of our developing countries do export indigenous foods to the developed countries. These indigenous foods originally were, and perhaps still are to a large extent, the staple foods of our peoples in the metropolitan countries. So today, we know there is an increasing demand for these exotic food types by the citizens - and I do not refer to the immigrants - of the countries to which these foods are sent.

The fundamental need for developing countries to concentrate their efforts on food security on indigenous-type staples, as the developed countries have done, remains sacrosanct. The point of view to which I am now giving emphasis gains validity, and I am sure the representative of the United Kingdom understands this point of view. He will no doubt mitigate his sentiments on what he referred to earlier as the siege mentality. May I say that I also understood his explanation.

What is even more frightening, when considering some of the data in the document before use, is the indication that in spite of increased imports, per capita consumption in some countries could be reduced by up to one half. Against this background, the Council - and therefore the November Conference - must give full backing to the conceptualization and implementation of efforts aimed at rehabilitation or improved structural capability of the agricultural sectors, such that there may be achievement on the three planks of effective food security - production, stability of production and access.

There can be no real debate on this principle. The burden of debt servicing which is now categorized in some fora as being an impossible task, and the consequential non-availability of foreign exchange to purchase food at current levels, make it clear that this principle must be the basic premise of the future thrust for food security.

On behalf of the Caribbean countries, we request the Director-General to ensure that the food security situation of the small and therefore highly vulnerable chain of Caribbean islands is duly examined. In a more general sense, we also wish to suggest that FAO conduct, or assist countries in conducting, analytical reviews of subsidy programmes in developing countries, especially where these countries administer programmes of a multiplicity of input subsidies. Such programmes can be costly in the context of limited resources, and there can be real concern as to the effective application of the resources utilized in this manner. Of course, this is closely tied to pricing policy. There can be real difficulties in arriving at a judicious combination of appropriate elements in a total incentive package expanding and/or limiting production levels of selected crops or livestock products. Where the effects of these programmes are negative from a global point of view the studies must so conclude. But FAO and other bodies must also explore real alternatives for bringing the various elements in the scenario into unison in the total thrust for food security at national, regional and global levels.


We wish to indicate our firm support for special initiatives in. relation to forestry, as they may be directly related to food production. The highest level policy-makers must be sensitized to the real cost of decisions on forest lands which often affect the determination of critical environmental conditions, including reduced water supplies.

More particularly, we feel that there is real merit in the facilitation of research and development work related to integrated crop, forestry and livestock programmes, such as would focus on interdependent rather than on competitive systems of resource management within ecological areas.

Programmes on wildlife farming are to be encouraged. But it is my understanding that due attention must be given to potential problems relating to diseases harboured by these animals which can be detrimental to mankind. In our country, we have embarked, with the help of FAO, on an initial effort in this regard. Accordingly, we would really appreciate guidance.

It is against the background of these principles and of real concern on the issue of world food security that my delegation endorses the initiative of the Director-General.

The meeting rose at 18.00 hours.
La séance est levée à 18 heures.
Se levanta la sesión a las 18.00 horas.



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