VZCZCXRO1727
RR RUEHRN
DE RUEHRN #0069/01 3311618
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 271618Z NOV 09
FM USMISSION UN ROME
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1198
INFO RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0410
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS 0254
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0309
RUEHRN/USMISSION UN ROME 1274

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