Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba criticized a declaration hammered out by 180 countries at the World Food Summit in Rome yesterday, saying it failed to identify the true causes of rising food prices.
The four-page declaration pledged to boost spending on agriculture in developing countries and to halve the number of malnourished people, now 862 million, by 2015. The Latin American nations objected to its failure to mention the need to cut subsidies in developed nations.
``Appropriate cures can't result from mistaken diagnosis,'' Argentina's government said in an e-mailed statement. ``Argentina is formally registering its dissatisfaction with a text that, while dealing with the question of food security, doesn't include a single reference that uses the term `agricultural subsidies'.''
The final text will include footnotes laying out objections made by countries including Argentina, Cuba and Venezuela, John Riddle, spokesman for the summit's host, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, said today in a telephone interview. The declaration still hasn't been published on FAO's Web site at 3 p.m. Rome time.
A 60 percent increase in food prices since the beginning of 2007 has sparked riots in more than 30 countries -- including Cameroon, Haiti and Egypt -- that depend on imported food.
Delegates overcame disputes over biofuels and the Latin American objections to sign off on the document. All nations agreed to the addition of the footnotes, which not everyone would accept in the main part of the text, Riddle said.
Lack of Will
Orlando Requeijo, Cuban vice-minister for foreign investment and economic collaboration, told delegates that the declaration is the result of a ``lack of political will from northern countries to promote a just and lasting solution to the world food crisis,'' said Cuba's official daily newspaper, Granma. Even so, Cuba ``wouldn't object to the consensus,'' Requeijo said.
Anibal Lopez, a spokesman at Venezuela's embassy to the FAO, said his country was drafting a letter outlining its objections, and would submit it next week. The current food crisis ``is the biggest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model,'' Venezuela's ambassador to the FAO, Gladys Urbaneja Duran, told delegates yesterday. She wasn't available to speak today.
``The main reason for the rise in food prices isn't growing demand from the Indian and Chinese markets, or the rise in petroleum prices,'' Urbaneja said. ``The main reason is that food has been turned into yet another object of market speculation.''
Subsidies
Free trade treaties and the ``flooding'' of the markets by subsidized U.S. produce have only served to weaken local economies that signed up to the pacts, Urbaneja said.
Between $11 billion and $12 billion a year is spent on agriculture subsidies and restrictive tariff policies, according to FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf.
The declaration didn't make reference to subsidies, though it did state: ``we reaffirm the need to minimize the use of restrictive measures that could increase the volatility of international prices.''
Not all Latin American nations were unhappy with the text. Guatemalan Agriculture Minister Raul Robles said the document is ``satisfactory'' for his country.
``For us, it's a success, because the declaration is clear that those most in need will be attended to if they ask for it,'' Robles said yesterday in an interview before the summit's closing session. ``This leaves open the door for us to get help from other countries in a strong food crisis.''Bloomberg
