Washington Insider -- Wednesday

Murder the Bugler, Not the Cook

Here's a quick monitor of Washington farm and trade policy issues from DTN's well-placed observer.

WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement Doomed, Observers Say

The Trade Facilitation Agreement that was developed by World Trade Organization members last year is now given virtually no chance of being adopted. The deal was approved by every WTO member except India which, due to WTO rules, prevents the TFA from being considered by national governments.

WTO Director-General Robert AzevĂŞdo recently dashed any hopes for a "substantive" discussion about the negotiations during an 80-minute General Council meeting in Geneva that WTO officials described as one of the shortest they've ever held. During that meeting not one member took the floor to discuss a path toward resolving India's demands that the WTO permit it to stockpile its domestic food supplies without violating international trade rules as a condition to moving forward on the TFA protocol agreement.

The TFA seeks to expedite the transportation, release and clearance of international goods among member countries by streamlining customs formalities, issuing advanced custom duties rulings and harmonizing other trade documents. Trade officials estimate that TFA ratification could save businesses $1 billion each year simply by making trade more efficient.

The roadblock is prompting some WTO members to look for other ways to advance trade facilitation rules without India's cooperation. Whether this will be through bilateral or multilateral agreements remains to be seen. But the WTO's proposed TFA likely will serve as the template for future deals.

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EU's GMO Import Approval Process Remains Gridlocked

Efforts led by European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and the European Union agriculture and food processing industry to get eight pending genetically modified (GM) grains approved for import have failed, and the prospects of them gaining approval in the foreseeable future look bleak due to the anti-GM crop views of key members of the next commission expected to take office in November.

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Incoming European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said earlier this year: "The Commission should be in a position to give the majority view of democratically elected governments at least the same weight as scientific advice, notably when it comes to the safety of the food we eat and the environment in which we live."

As has been the case for years, opposition in Europe to genetically engineered crops is based largely on ideological and political views, not on science. But politicians across the EU long ago lost their opportunity to get in front of the issue with pertinent information about the then relatively new technology. European livestock producers now are paying the price of that oversight in the form of growing problems involved in importing adequate supplies of feed.

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Washington Insider: Murder the Bugler, Not the Cook

Someday I'm going to murder the bugler, Someday they're going to find him dead. I'll amputate his reveille and stomp upon it heavily, and spend the rest of my life in bed! -- Irving Berlin

The New York Times published a perfectly serious op-ed piece this week that raised a perfectly serious question of whether anybody really reads those items before they publish them.

The background is that former U.S. Representative Eva Clayton, who wrote the piece, is perfectly serious in her efforts to convince everyone that local agriculture is really important and offers a "wide range of nutritional, environmental and economic benefits." She doesn't say what these are, of course, but she wrote to deplore the fact that "one segment of the population is largely missing out on this bounty: the millions of members of the American military and their families."

She says that almost all that food "is bought in vast quantities from enormous agribusiness operations, with little attention paid to where and how it was grown, or how fresh it is." She notes that she was once in Congress, where she worked to provide small- and mid-scale farmers, "who represent the backbone of rural America, with the opportunity to supply our country's military."

This effort faces pressures, she thinks. An example is "price pressures, which were not surprising," and which she attributes to the "economies of scale realized by large farms, which also could work more easily with the military bureaucracy." No mention of the military needs — or tight budgets, which turn out to be pretty well ignored in her vision.

There were a few other challenges, she notes, and that when she was in Congress, her "efforts to open the door to smaller, more local producers didn't go anywhere at the time." That is all changed, she thinks because "local farming and the mechanisms for getting its products to consumers have expanded significantly."

Then this: "That's why Congress and the Department of Defense should tackle this issue anew by mandating that a percentage, even if it is just 5 or 10 percent, of a base's food come from local small- and mid-scale farmers. Doing so would be a boon for everyone." She is especially fond of the idea that subsidizing small local producers would prevent the commercial and residential development that now presents "obvious safety and security risks to military facilities.

Most important, this effort would help the military's "Healthy Base Initiative," and help deal with the obesity and overweight problem now threatening military readiness. The military represents one of the single largest markets for food in the country, she notes and opening the door just a little to small- and mid-scale food producers could do "worlds of good" for everyone: the farmers, the consumers and the military itself, she says.

Ms. Clayton should take a look at her vision from the point of view of the thousands of military food suppliers, including possibly my grizzled old battery cook from long ago. He thought, based on both perception and experience, that his very existence depended on his ability to get good stuff from any and everywhere to satisfy the endless appetites of some 150 always hungry GIs who had, shall we say, underdeveloped sensitivities to food faddists' theories of lovacorism and politically correctness about smaller farmers. He saw the challenge and did a good job of it, although everything was not always pretty. And, the Army agreed with him — and, in the large part, I suspect it still does.

Ms. Clayton also might want to read a book on the dangers of linking things that weaken the "main chance." There are about a zillion analysts who review the military nutrition chain and help plan and operate it. In addition to my sergeant, Ms. Clayton might find a few generals who worry about how still hungry troops might react to orders to take on yet another firefight — and where her political correct theories would end up if that happened.

As I say, the Times needs at least one old guy or gal who served in the ranks and might have a moderate attack of the type of apoplexy likely to accompany the idea of making the satisfaction of the GIs second fiddle to her food and sustainability fads. Not a pretty sight, Washington Insider believes.


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(GH/CZ)

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