This open letter is signed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary General of UNCTAD, the UN trade and development body.
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Two UN leaders called on Monday, June 13, the member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) not to impose restrictions on food exports. Objective: to avoid the risk of a serious food crisis that the invasion of Ukraine by Russia poses to the whole world. Ministers from WTO member countries are meeting this week in Geneva, Switzerland.
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“The war in Ukraine is inflicting terrible suffering on the Ukrainian people and has increased the risk of hunger and starvation for tens of millions of people who are on the verge of becoming or are already food insecure”write UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary General of UNCTAD, the UN trade and development body.
They call on WTO countries to “refrain from imposing export restrictions on essential foodstuffs purchased by least developed countries and by net food-importing developing countries, as well as those purchased by the World Food Program for humanitarian purposes”.
At the end of May, WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala also called for limiting export restrictions. One of the latest countries to have taken this type of measure is India, which announced a cap on its sugar exports from June 1, after already banning those of wheat. One of the strong expectations of the WTO Ministerial Conference is precisely the adoption of a text on export restrictions and food safety.