EU should export not change its farm policy, says French minister
Europe should inspire developing countries with its common agriculture policy (CAP) rather than undertaking steps to radically overhaul the policy, French agriculture minister Michel Barnier has said.
"I think [the CAP] is a good model," Mr Barnier, former member of the European Commission said in interview with Financial Times, published on Monday (28 April).
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"It is a policy that allows us to produce to feed ourselves. We pool our resources to support production. West Africa, East Africa, Latin America and the southern shore of the Mediterranean all need regional common agricultural policies," he added.
Mr Barnier argued that the current tensions over basic food price hikes across the world are a consequence of "too much free-market liberalism," maintaining "We can't leave feeding people to the mercy of the market. We need a public policy, a means of intervention and stabilisation."
He expressed doubts on whether the current key international trade forum managed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the "right place to discuss the relationship between food and agriculture".
"Whatever the outcome of the Doha round, suspension, failure or success, we need to ask what is the correct forum for discussing this," the French farm chief commented on the ongoing trade talks.
Europe and the United States have been facing strong criticism by developing countries and humanitarian organisations for their reluctance to give up their farm protection measures as a way to allow poor farm-producing countries to prosper.
But Mr Barnier suggested that the EU should instead support developing countries to create similar regional farm aid systems which would secure their food-efficiency.
Europe should also further tighten up its quality and health regulations as well as impose import bans for products from abroad which do not meet such strict criteria, with Mr Barnier referring to such an approach as "the new policy of European preference."
France will take over from Slovenia as EU presidency country in July and is planning to kick-start a debate on whether and how the CAP should change after 2013 when a current deal on caps for direct subsidies to farmers will expire.
Paris has so far benefited most from the common aid package while some countries - mainly Britain – have criticised the system.
While some in Europe see the current global food crisis as another reason for CAP reform and farm aid cuts, Mr Barnier argues that subsidies already fell from taking up 81 percent of the EU's budget in 1985 and is set for 37 percent by 2013.
His German counterpart, Horst Seehofer, recently made similar calls to keep the bloc's farm subsidies untouched amid the current global food crisis.
"I don't see how we could now decide to do away with European farm support, which is compensation for the many environmental and animal protection norms that they must respect," Mr Seehofer was quoted as saying by several media.
Farm aid levels until end of 2012 were agreed by France and Germany in 2002, shortly before the EU concluded accession negotiations with the ten new member states that joined the bloc in 2004.