Extraordinary Virtual G20 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting on COVID-19 pandemic

The G20 Agriculture Ministers held an extraordinary virtual meeting on 21 April 2020 to act upon the Leaders’ commitment to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, at the initiative of Saudi Arabia - the G20 2020 Presidency.

Photo: MARD attended the meeting as ASEAN Chairman in 2020  

On behalf of Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Nguyen Do Anh Tuan, Director General of the International Cooperation Department attended the meeting as ASEAN Chairman in 2020.

The meeting was attended by ministers of all G20 member countries, Heads of important international organizations such as WHO, OIE, World Bank, WTO, FAO, OECD and a number of other guest economies and international organizations.

The meeting took place in the context that developed economies like the US and the EU have passed the peak of the coronavirus outbreak. These economies had to take into account immediate measures to control the disease and ensure social security, and at the same time devise important strategies to maintain the health of the economies in the short term and help them to quickly recover from the pandemic.

Photo: G20 Extraordinary Agriculture Ministers Meeting

In addition to acknowledging the clear implications for the global food system and supply chains, Ministers and Heads of international organizations shared a common view on the crucial importance of global food security for over 7 billion people during and after the combat against COVID-19. In 34 speeches, Ministers and Heads of international organizations shared the major issues that need to be committed for implementation at national, regional, inter-regional and global levels. These include: Ensuring agricultural production; Ensuring access to food for the people through sustaining global food trade based on common rules, minimizing unnecessary restrictions and barriers that cause trade disruptions, maintaining the flow of global food, consolidating and energizing agricultural logistics, inter-regional and international transportation and stabilizing food prices; Deploying extensive support packages for agricultural production at producer households, micro, small and medium enterprises; Promoting recovery of the agriculture sector in parallel with necessary measures to ensure the health of people and communities; and Strengthening control of food loss and waste.

At the meeting, Viet Nam highlighted inspiring efforts and their results of ASEAN countries in working together to prevent and combat the pandemic. A number of documents on COVID-19 Prevention at the levels of Prime Ministers and ASEAN Ministers of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to ensure food security, food safety and nutrition security. Viet Nam also shared the clear results of Viet Nam’s Government and people in disease prevention and combat. Viet Nam emphasized that agricultural production is currently facing great challenges with multidimensional impacts of climate change, droughts, diseases and COVID-19. Accordingly, in order to contribute to the development of global cooperation policy frameworks, Viet Nam proposed five specific solutions for implementation in the coming time, which include: i) Promote inter-regional cooperation between multilateral forums and organizations; ii) Promote the application of information technology and digital technology in agricultural trade; iii) Facilitate agricultural trade through cost reduction, reduction of technical barriers while ensuring food safety through promoting recognition of equivalence of management; iv) Promote the global food system’s efficiency, avoid disruption of global agricultural trade, and control food loss and waste; v) Provide preferential support packages through bilateral, multilateral donors, regional and international financial mechanisms to support farmers, households, cooperatives and enterprises.

The meeting ended successfully with the adoption of the G20 Ministerial Statement on COVID-19.