France recently contributed almost $50,000 to the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) to boost safe food production for trade amongst developing countries, the World Trade Organization (WTO) reported.
France’s Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty had already committed over $396,000 to the STDF this year, and the almost $50,000 adds to that. Overall, France has contributed approximately $27 million to various WTO trust funds over the past 20 years. The French ministry in charge of agriculture has been contributing funds to the STDF since 2015.
"I thank France for its continuous support for developing countries and LDCs in tackling sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) challenges, so producers can access global and regional markets and raise their standards of living,” said World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in a press release.
This contribution will be used to strengthen the ability of small-scale farmers, producers and traders to efficiently access global and regional markets for food and agriculture products. It will support the development and roll-out of collaborative sanitary and phytosanitary projects, knowledge sharing and monitoring and evaluation of results.
It will also connect entities across agriculture, health, trade and development so they can collaborate on a more coherent approach to sanitary and phytosanitary development.
The STDF is an organization that facilitates safe and exclusive trade, established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organization for Animal Health, the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization and the WTO, which houses and manages the partnership.