Business

Food trade. On June 5th, the director of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero, and the Under Secretary for International Affairs and Commerce of the United States Department of Agriculture, Ted McKinney, agreed to implement measures of production, awareness and technology transfer throughout the American continent. This agreement will allow the 34 nations that make up IICA to adopt the Codex Alimentarius guidelines and improve production to adapt to international trade standards. Following the meeting between Otero and McKinney, IICA began working on an advocacy agenda to promote food marketing in the countries of the region.

To stimulate these actions, IICA is developing an agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The agricultural organization expects to announce a work plan in conjunction with the IDB in the coming weeks. IICA intends to obtain the necessary financing so that the States can assume these marketing measures.

The review of issues related to food safety, trade and biotechnology was another of the highlights of the meeting between Otero and McKinney. In this way, they hope that the Codex Alimentarius – a set of food standards meant to protect consumer’s health – will ensure the application of fair practices in the exchange of edible goods. During his time in Washington (United States), Otero also managed to secure the bases of an alliance with the Andean Development Corporation (CAF).

In turn, the IICA director met in New York with the heads of Latin American missions to the United Nations (UN) to lay the foundations of a work agenda. The idea is to systematize IICA’s best practices in the field of agriculture and rural development to add them to the UN‘s joint work agenda.

Next steps

In the next months, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will  define a roadmap for the implementation of joint actions with IICA. On the same topic,  IICA will sign a framework agreement with the UN Office for South-South Cooperation to coordinate actions.