WTO highlights strategies to tackle illicit trade in food, food fraud
Omeiza Bilal
A new publication by the World Trade Organization (WTO) has fashioned out ways to combat the challenges of illicit trade in food and food fraud.
According to the UN body, there is an urgent need for the international community to act collectively and explore strategies for overcoming current challenges.
The publication underlined the detrimental impact of illicit food trade on food security and public health.
The UN agency outlined various strategies to counter illicit food trade and food fraud, recognizing that a comprehensive response requires a blend of regulatory measures, enforcement, industry cooperation and consumer education. The publication also outlines action taken by various agencies in these areas and highlights that a range of WTO agreements provide an effective toolkit that can contribute to combating illicit trade.
In her opening remarks, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala emphasized the Organisation’s role in disciplining international trade and preventing the “law of the jungle.”
She said: “The levelling of the playing field must extend to weeding out all forms of illegal trade and fraudulent activities,” including sub-standard food, falsely labelled food, counterfeit goods and smuggled products.”
The Director-General highlighted the substantial economic impact of these issues, with estimated annual economic losses for global traders ranging between $30 billion and $50 billion. This excludes losses associated with illicit trade in alcoholic beverages. She noted that illicit activities are pervasive across all continents, penetrating most agri-food sectors, such as olive oil, honey, essential oils, wines and spirits.
Discussing the role of the WTO rulebook in supporting governments’ efforts to address these challenges, she emphasized the importance of the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) in regulating food imports based on scientific and risk assessment techniques and addressing deceptive practices. She also underlined that the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) can facilitate legal trade flows and serve as a vital tool to curb counterfeit food and beverages.
“We need to leverage these agreements, and indeed the whole WTO toolbox, to fight illicit trade and food fraud,” the DG said. She expressed the hope that the publication would spur discussions and action on the subject and underlined the importance of focusing efforts on prevention, a key message highlighted by the publication.
The Director-General of the Transnational Alliance, Jeffrey Hardy, stressed the “wide range of negative impacts” that illicit trade in food has on businesses, resulting in economic losses of up to half a trillion dollars when including the fish and spirits sectors.
He warned that driven by high demand for food and the growing world population, the illicit food trade will only become more rampant in the near future.
“You’re not going to be able to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals unless real efforts are taken to mitigate illicit trade,” he added.
