Commonwealth food producers urged to take advantage of trade incentives

The Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, has encouraged food producers to take advantage of business opportunities within the Commonwealth, as world trade picks up following the 2008 global financial crisis.

Speaking at the 28th Commonwealth Agriculture Conference in Edmonton, Canada, the Secretary-General said intra-Commonwealth trade is forecast to reach around $700 billion by 2020.

“It could be even more if we capitalize on the synergies offered through our work to implement the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement and the new African Continental Free Trade Area,” she said.

The conference hosts more than 300 international delegates from 21 developed and developing nations of the Commonwealth.

Its mission is two-fold: to enable the interchange of ideas, information and views on the secure sustainable use of natural resources in the production of food, forestry, and fisheries, and to promote the development of agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, and the rural environment.

The Secretary-General outlined a range of measures to realize the Commonwealth’s vision of increasing intra-Commonwealth trade to $2 trillion by 2030 and expand intra-Commonwealth investment.

Producers as well as growers, suppliers and buyers would all benefit from initiatives agreed at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting held in London earlier this year, she said, including the Connectivity Agenda for Trade and Investment.

“Our common language, shared inheritances, and similar systems of regulation and administration based on Common Law bind us together, making transactions easier and bringing many efficiencies when we trade with one another,” she said.

Original source: The Commonwealth
Published on 7 November 2018