*EPF309 06/12/2002
U.S. Sees Positive Tone in World Food Summit Discussions
(Meeting focusing on results, not rhetoric, Larson says) (490)

By Kathryn McConnell
Washington File Staff Writer

Rome -- Alan Larson, under secretary of state for economic, business and agricultural affairs, says that the June 10-13 World Food Summit: Five Years Later conference here is meeting U.S. expectations of focusing on "results, not rhetoric."

Speaking at a June 11 press conference at the Rome meeting, Larson said he was glad to hear both U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf emphasize that the international community needs to take more action if it is to achieve measurable results to reduce world hunger and poverty.

One such action would be greater use of agricultural biotechnology, Larson said. He said that higher per capita agricultural yields could be "an indispensable part of raising incomes" in developing countries, which are heavily rural. He added that higher yields per hectare could be part of environmental improvement as less land will be needed to convert from forest to farm.

Larson said that in addition to the United States increasing funding for agricultural development, the multilateral development banks have pledged "significant" increases for agriculture and most developing countries are "putting agriculture at the heart of their poverty reduction strategies."

This represents a significant shift from policies over the last several decades when developing countries provided significant resources and subsidies to industry, which shifted investment out of the agricultural sector.

Larson also said that the summit has put "an appropriate" emphasis on the importance of trade in reducing poverty. He defended the recently passed U.S. farm bill, which keeps the United States within its World Trade Organization (WTO) $19,000 million annual cap -- or limit -- on domestic support subsidies and adds a provision that allows the secretary of agriculture to cut supports off if they "bump up against" the cap.

He contrasted the U.S. cap with the European Union's cap of about $62,000 million and Japan's of about $30,000 million.

He said the United States will to continue to pursue agricultural policy reform within the WTO. He said the United States continues to support global negotiations that will eliminate export subsidies, substantially reduce domestic price supports and dramatically increase market access for all countries.

During questioning, Larson said the United States is "skeptical" of analysis that seeks to put a dollar amount on how much money is needed to reduce hunger and poverty in the world. "We have to capture all the resources available" including increasing poor countries' exports, he said.

Larson said the United States is increasing its aid and encouraging well-defined, community-based strategies. He said remote rural areas have been "shortchanged" by development in the past.

"There is a strong sense of pride in communities," he said. People don't want to be told what to do but want to decide what approach is most appropriate for them, he said.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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