Cairns Group Farm Leaders

The Cairns Group Farm Leaders meeting was held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan from 7-9 September and was co-chaired by NFF President, Jock Laurie, and the Presidents of both the Canadian farm groups. It also included face to face participation from farm groups in Canada, New Zealand, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay. The Farm Leaders were clear in expressing to Ministers member’s extreme disappointment and frustration about the lack of progress in the Doha Development Round. The Farm Leaders reinforced that agriculture needs to remain a central focus of the multilateral negotiations, with tangible progress required on the three pillars of market access, export competition and domestic support. Issues surrounding the role of trade in meeting the food security challenge as well as the need to ensure that mutilateral negotiations remain the primary focuss of Cairn Group Ministers were also discussed. The communique from the Cairns Group Farm Leaders to the Cairns Group Ministers is available for download below. More information is available from the Cairns Group Farm Leaders http://www.cairnsgroupfarmers.org[website].