Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen: Completely free agricultural trade not the solution to the world’s food problems

Press release 199/2008
5 June, 2008

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen attended the annual ministerial meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris on 5 June. At the session dealing with trade negotiations, Väyrynen emphasised that completely free agricultural trade is not the solution to the world’s food problems.

“So that all production resources can be utilised, we need more free trade than at present, but not unlimited free trade”, he stressed.

According to Väyrynen, complete freeing of agricultural trade would lead to a fall of self-sufficiency and to agricultural production increasingly from only the viewpoint of exportation. Such a solution would not promote development of agricultural production, especially in the poorest developing countries.

At the OECD ministerial meeting, in addition to trade negotiations the trade ministers discussed, among other issues, the organisation’s new financing model and expansion, and challenges facing the world economy. The other leader of the Finnish delegation was Minister of Public Administration and Local Government Mari Kiviniemi.

Additional information: Deputy Director General Pekka Säilä, Department for External Economic Relations, mobile tel. +358 40 747 8931, and Päivi Nevala, Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, mobile tel. 040 753 4375