G8 to Agree to Fight Protectionism, Boost Farm Aid

Group of 8 leaders will agree to fight trade protectionism and mobilize billions over the next three years to boost agricultural investment in the developing world, a draft of the communique said on Monday.

The summit of the world's leading industrialized nations will convene in L'Aquila, Italy, on Wednesday through Friday in talks that will focus on food security, aid, climate change, trade and the world economy.

The draft, obtained by Reuters, calls for a conclusion of the Doha trade talks but does not set a timeline for finishing the negotiations.

The draft does not include a figure for how much the G8 would commit to agriculture investment because it is still under discussion, although aid sources said it could be as much as $15 billion.

An agreement on food security is critical following record food price increases and shortages of key commodities last year, which increased hunger and malnutrition worldwide.

The G8 includes the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia.

According to the draft, leaders will express concern about global food security and agree that sustained and predictable funding, and increased targeted investments in agriculture are urgently needed to increase world food production.

"The tendency of decreasing ODA (official development assistance) and national financing to agriculture must be reversed," the draft said. "We will aim at substantially increasing aid to agriculture and food security, including through multi-year resource commitments," it added.

The G8 will also urge countries to remove food export restrictions or extraordinary taxes, especially for food bought for humanitarian purposes, according to the draft communique. In addition they will call on countries to give advance notice before imposing any restrictions.

The focus on global food security has been proposed by the Obama administration following the food price crisis last year, which highlighted chronic underinvestment in agriculture as donor aid has increasingly gone to fighting diseases.

The G8 draft will also emphasize that agricultural investment should be done in a way that promotes sustainable production and helps the poor.
    
Concluding Doha Trade Round

Turning to trade, the G8 leaders will aim for "an ambitious, comprehensive and balanced" conclusion of the Doha trade round, according to the draft.

It said the G8 will call for "renewed, determined efforts to bring it to a timely and successful conclusion."

The lack of a timeframe for wrapping up the negotiations will be a disappointment for G8 host Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who said earlier on Monday he hoped the summit would agree to give a mandate to successfully conclude talks by 2010.

European G8 sources said last week they expected the final communique to set a target of completing the Doha round next year after positive signals from the United States and India.

Trade ministers hoped the meeting of the G8 plus Brazil, India, China, Mexico and South Africa on the second day of the summit would agree a timeline on concluding the Doha talks, which would then be taken to September's meeting of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries.

As protectionism has increased in the face of the global economic recession, the G8 will urge countries to avoid measures that restrict trade.

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"Markets must remain open, protectionism rejected and factors potentially affecting commodity price volatility, including speculation, monitored and analyzed further," the draft said.

"We are therefore committed to reduce trade distortions and refrain from raising new barriers to trade and investment and from implementing WTO-inconsistent measures to stimulate exports," it added.

The World Bank identified the United States, Brazil, Argentina, India, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and Italy as among countries that have erected trade barriers since a meeting of the Group of 20 in April.

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