Agriculture Minister Steenhuisen warns US tariffs threaten global food security

Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen believes the United States' new trade tariffs will threaten global food security, a sentiment he shared on the sidelines of the G20 Agriculture Working Group meetings in Somerset West.

Steenhuisen is hosting the G20 Agriculture Working Group and Food Security Task Force Ministerial meetings, which are currently underway. He said he expects climate change and sustainable development matters to be the greatest sticking points in reaching a consensus.

Minister John Steenhuisen said food insecurity and malnutrition remain a priority concern for his department, and climate change poses an added challenge.

"It's the single biggest threat to agriculture, and climate volatility affects smallholder farmers and subsistence farmers the most, and that’s why we have to channel more investment both from public research but also from private research into elements that are going to build climate resilience.”

While trade tariffs are not specifically up for discussion at these meetings, Steenhuisen says discussions about farming for the future cannot ignore the impact of tariffs. He believes the government has put a broad and generous offer to the US in efforts to drive down the 30% tariff imposed by Washington.

A negotiating team is currently in the US capital, but Steenhuisen said other factors are now also at play.

“I think we are seeing tariffs moving beyond just trade, towards a bent of geopolitics and I think that’s going to fundamentally change the way in which trade infrastructure works across the globe.”

Steenhuisen said the shift in global trade relations brought on by the United States is going to cast a spotlight on the role of the World Trade Organisation.

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