UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 8th SESSION
Plenary Meeting
Statement by Mr Bernard Wonder, Deputy Secretary,
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry,
for the Australian Delegation
25 April 2000
Thank you Mr Chairman,
There is a wide consensus that poverty is the main impediment to sustainable agriculture and food security. The most effective solution to poverty is economic growth based on comparative advantage and competitive international trade. This is recognised by the World Food Summit and endorsed by the FAO.
It is important that governments continue to work towards the elimination of barriers to trade, such as agricultural price support mechanisms and restrictions on imports, as the discussion paper contributed by the International Agri-Food Network suggests. These policies reduce the opportunities for developing countries to create viable industries as they attempt to compete with subsidised imports; they reduce the prices of commodities and therefore the incomes of agricultural producers; and they promote the use of marginal and easily degraded resources that cannot be used sustainably and productively.
I want to pick up a key concern of the NGO contribution - that is, dumping of uneconomic production. Australia's experience is that uneconomic production that results in the dumping of products on markets is usually the result of overproduction and unsustainable resource use caused by agricultural price support policies. The most effective way of eliminating the dumping of unwanted products and the damage caused to the environment by uneconomic production systems is to remove the price and production support mechanisms that encourage these practices and impede trade sourced from efficient and sustainable producers.
I would like to say a little now on the comments made in the Workers and Trade Unions paper on the multifunctional character of agriculture.
The proponents of multifunctionality point to rural employment, landscape values, environment protection and rural development as key outcomes of its adoption. It is true, Mr Chairman, that all countries face these issues in one way or another, but not all have chosen to address these concerns in costly, ineffective ways.
The best way of achieving environmental objectives is through policies targeted at specific priorities. It isn't through domestic subsidies that distort production, prices, and trade and damage natural resources through their impact on soil degradation and water quality.
What then are these targeted policies? Well, one in particular Australia would like to share with CSD 8 is the community based partnerships that feature in the Landcare approach to sustainable development adopted in our country and increasingly elsewhere. Landcare, with its focus on regional planning, on-ground projects, sustainable systems, research and development and education and training, provides for win-win outcomes for both non-trade policy and agricultural trade objectives.
Against this background, Australia would be concerned with CSD pursuing work on multifunctionality. Furthermore, we believe that work by CSD in this area would duplicate the efforts of the OECD and WTO, where a sharply divided debate is already occurring.
Finally, Mr Chairman, I would like to point to a few areas where Australia feels the CSD work program could add value and make a significant difference to future outcomes.
These include: first, the investigation of targeted policy instruments to progress sustainable development objectives with minimum distortionary impact on trade and agricultural production; second, the link between export subsidies and world commodity prices and consequences for sustainability of production systems; third, the value of community based partnerships such as Landcare to address sustainable development objectives; and finally, building the capacity of landholders via research, skill development and training and education to enhance their ability to address sustainable development.
Thank you, Mr Chairman, for the opportunity to make these comments.