”Outrageously high” subsidies paid to farmers in rich countries had to be curtailed to enable those in the developing world to compete as equals, British foreign secretary Jack Straw said on Wednesday.
”We have a problem,” he told an audience at the University of SA during a two-day official visit to the country. ”If we don’t deal with it, all the development aid we are producing will have much less effect than if we can open up our markets … to produce and products from Africa.”
Straw said 35% of farm incomes in Europe were derived from subsidies, and 21% in the United States.
The United Kingdom, he said, was trying to change the attitude of the European Union towards subsidies.
”Nepad (the New Partnership for Africa’s Development) recognises that … developed countries … have a responsibility to ensure that Africa thrives, and to develop stronger partnerships with those African countries which live up to their Nepad commitments,” Straw said.
”That is why getting the European Union to change its attitude to agricultural subsidies is so important.”
Straw said Britain wanted to see ”far more” progress with World Trade Organisation negotiations aimed at opening up world trade for the benefit of all — particularly developing countries.
Also, a successful meeting next month of the Group of Eight industrialised countries would demonstrate the will on their part to come together for the benefit of the world as a whole. The summit in Evian, France, is to focus on development.
”These days we are living in a single world. Our economic interests are the same as the economic interests of Africa,” Straw said. – Sapa