FAO BIENNIAL CONFERENCE: U.S. ACHIEVES KEY OBJECTIVES,

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 UN ROME 000069

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL EAGR EAID FAO UN
SUBJECT: FAO BIENNIAL CONFERENCE: U.S. ACHIEVES KEY OBJECTIVES,
INCLUDING BUDGET

REF: USUN ROME 67 (SUMMIT CABLE)


1. (U) This message is sensitive but unclassified. Please
handle accordingly.



Summary

--------------




2. (SBU) The 36th Conference of the Food and Agriculture
Organization was held in Rome November 18-23, beginning a mere
three hours after the closing of the World Food Summit. The
United States achieved its main objectives of limiting FAO
budget growth while guaranteeing funding for the comprehensive
reform program, approving the previously negotiated reform plan
of the Committee on Food Security (CFS),and approving the Port
State Measures to Prevent Illegal, Unlicensed and Unreported
Fishing. The U.S. won reelection to the FAO Council, and
Frenchman Luc Guyau was elected Independent Chair of the
Council. A last-minute attempt by elements of the G-77 to
enlarge the Council from 49 to 61 seats was delayed for further
study.




3. (U) The USG delegation, comprised of USDA, State, and USUN
Rome senior staff, was headed by Agriculture Department Deputy
Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, who also chaired the Conference
(the first woman to ever do so). The U.S. intervention (on USUN
Rome website) was delivered by Ambassador Cousin. Overall, the
United States image in FAO was greatly improved and our
proactive involvement with all the players, especially in the
developing world, was widely viewed as constructive,
representing a renewed U.S. commitment to multilateralism. The
Conference did reveal several FAO limitations that we will be
addressing in the months ahead, including a need for better
Secretariat support on legal and procedural issues as well as
continued effort by the Office of the Director-General to
exploit divisions between the OECD and the G-77 voting blocs.
End Summary.





Commission on Program and Budgetary Matters - U.S. Votes Yes on
Budget

--------------




4. (SBU) The main item considered by the Commission on Program
and Budgetary Matters was the Mid-term Plan and Program of Work
and Budget for 2010-2011. The Director-General's proposed draft
reflected a 13.5% increase in member assessments and included
funding for only 50% of the Immediate Plan of Action (IPA)
reform plan, significant operational cost increases, and several
add-ons for financial health. The agreed budget increase of 6.7%
was less than half this amount, comprising a 4% increase for
funding the entire IPA reform program and an additional 2.7% for
cost increases. The remaining financial health items -
replenishment of the Special Reserve Account and increased
contribution to the past After Service Medical Coverage, were
deferred. For the first time in three biennia, the United
States voted in favor of the FAO budget and an almost complete
consensus was reached with 137 votes in favor; one against
(Japan) and two abstentions without explanation (Armenia and
Cambodia). Mexico could not support the level of the increase,
but decided to only make a statement for the record and did
participate in the vote.




5. (SBU) The U.S. Delegation succeeded in defeating the Director
General's proposal to allow budgetary chapter transfers of up to
5% without previous approval by the Finance Committee, as now
required, on the grounds that doing so would reduce members'
control and oversight.





UN ROME 00000069 002 OF 004



Plenary

--------------




6. (U) The majority of the Plenary Sessions were devoted to
Member interventions following a report on the State of Food and
Agriculture and the theme of the Conference, "Improved
Preparedness for, and Effective Response to, Food and
Agricultural Threats and Emergencies." Ambassador Cousin
delivered the U.S. address to the Conference and welcomed USDA
Deputy Secretary Merrigan as the first woman to chair the body.
The Ambassador reiterated the U.S. strong support for promoting
food security and reforming the FAO. Most of the other
interventions expressed concern with the potential impact of
climate change as well as the impact of the financial and food
price crisis on vulnerable nations and populations. All
expressed a desire to work together within FAO to help
strengthen food security and to aid rural development. All
donor countries spoke in support of FAO reform and the need to
include all the IPA costs in the assessed budget, as was
eventually done. The UK spoke at length regarding the World
Food Summit Declaration and emphasized the significance of
having the entire UN membership endorse the Rome Principles for
Sustainable Global Food Security and the key role of the FAO in
helping achieve food security. A number of developing nations,
such as Haiti, Nepal, Somalia and the Maldives, discussed their
domestic situations which included food riots, civil strife and
potential rises in the sea level, respectively. They also
stressed the importance of technical assistance and capacity
building and urged even greater efforts to eradicate hunger and
poverty. The statements by Cuba, Iran and Venezuela were
relatively mild. Only the Lebanese delegate launched
significant verbal attacks on Israel, blaming that country's
so-called "barbaric aggression" for most of Lebanon's problems.
Finally, the representative of FAO Staff made a moderately
critical statement of the FAO and its administrative and
personnel practices, ending by saying "We want to be able to say
with commitment that we support the work of the FAO."



Constitutional and Legal Matters

--------------




7. Extensive changes to the Constitution and to the General
rules of the Organization (GRO),necessary to implement the
reforms outlined in the Immediate Plan of Action, were
introduced in Plenary for approval by the Membership. These
passed without contention. Similarly, the reform of the
Committee on World Food Security (CFS) required changes to the
GROs. Also uncontested was an amendment to the Constitution
introduced by the French, to move the CFS to Article III, making
it a Committee of Conference rather than a Committee of Council,
with the aim of raising the status of the CFS above that of the
other technical committees.






8. In a last-minute attempt to yet again amend the
constitution, a resolution that had been filed with the Director
General in July, was introduced to the Conference by elements of
the G-77, notably the Near East Group. This resolution proposed
increasing the size of the Council from 49 to 61 members. The
Near East Group decided to resurrect this proposal which had not
been placed on the agenda, because it had been unable to agree
among its members on a rotation of members to the Council,
resulting in several countries occupying de facto "permanent"
seats. The Dominican Republic chair of the G-77 offered a
compromise resolution that would establish an open-ended working
group to examine the issue of enlarging the Council along with
other unidentified governance issues. The Near East Group
itself had the only disputed election for Council seats,
resulting in several rounds of balloting.






UN ROME 00000069 003 OF 004


Fisheries: Port State Measures Agreement

--------------




9. (SBU) Also introduced under Legal Matters was the Agreement
on Port State Measures to Prevent Illegal, Unlicensed and
Unreported Fishing. Conference members rejected a last-minute
amendment proposed by Costa Rica on behalf of several Latin
American states, that would have referred the Agreement back to
the Committee on Fisheries, and overwhelmingly voted to approve
the Agreement without change. After lengthy debate in which all
but a handful of Latin representatives spoke in favor of
approving the Agreement, the vote tally was 106 in favor, two
against, and 12 abstentions. Immediately following approval,
Members were invited to sign the Agreement. The Ambassador,
presented with Full Powers on behalf of the Secretary of State,
signed the agreement on November 22.



New Council Independent Chairman Elected

--------------




10. (SBU) On November 22, Members voted on candidacies for the
Independent Chair of Council as well as two-thirds of Council
seats. The French candidate for Independent Chair, Luc Guyau,
narrowly won on the second ballot with strong French backing,
defeating Gambian Fatou Ndeye Gaye and Vic Heard of the UK. On
November 25, the Council will vote on membership on the Program
and Finance Committees, the Committee on Constitutional and
Legal Matters (CCLM),and seats on the Executive Board of the
World Food Program.





Commission on Substantive and Policy Matters

--------------




11. (SBU) The Commission on Substantive and Policy Matters
considered and endorsed the reports submitted by the technical
committees of FAO on Fisheries (COFI),Forestry (COFO),
Agricultural (COAG),and Commodity Problems (CCP),which
outlined the results of the meetings held during the biennium.
The Commission stressed the urgent need for implementation of
the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources for Food
and Agriculture, and supported the Funding Strategy developed to
implement it, appealing to Members and international mechanisms
to allocate predictable resources. The Global Strategy for
Agricultural and Rural Statistics was welcomed as a high quality
report that fully addressed a critical need of the organization
and commended FAO for its leadership on this matter. The report
on the reformed Committee on Food Security (CFS) was accepted
without changes, and the Conference approved the CFS reform
plan. In addition, Commission I reported to the conference on
the United Nations World Food Program, where members emphasized
WFP's increased commitment to enhance partnerships with other UN
agencies and stakeholders. Finally Commission I reported on the
results of the High Level Expert Forum on "How to Feed the World
in 2050," noting that the documents of the conference provided a
useful reference for the future work of FAO.




12. (SBU) COMMENT. Although successful in helping to change
the U.S. image among FAO members, the Conference revealed some
continuing FAO limitations. As Chair of the Conference, the
Deputy Secretary was able to navigate contentious issues such as
the Port State Measures Agreement, the attempt to enlarge the
Council, and unclear voting procedures, with either poor or
little FAO Secretariat support. Clearly, FAO needs to improve
its legal department. The Conference also revealed lingering
mistrust of the Secretariat on behalf of the membership, a
situation not helped by the near total absence of the
Director-General from the Conference proceedings - a situation
that was likely in part a spillover from his unhappiness with
the level of attendance of OECD countries at the Summit.

UN ROME 00000069 004 OF 004






13. (SBU) COMMENT CONTINUED. Clearly the reputation of the
United States has changed for the better, leading to a more
constructive atmosphere within the Conference. When the
Ambassador mentioned to the plenary that the U.S. would join the
majority in support of the budget, the room broke into applause.
The once solid G-77 block continued to exhibit signs of
division, particularly among the Latin Americans, some Asians,
and members of the Near East Group. This may result in an
easier working relationship between the U.S. and members of the
once intransigent G77 block on FAO reform-related issues.




14. (U) This message was cleared by the Head of the USG
Delegation, and Chairwoman of Conference, Deputy Secretary of
the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Dr. Kathleen Merrigan.
COUSIN