The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, opened the 177th FAO Council session by urging members to use the establishment of U.S. tariffs and recent global trade events to accelerate the transformation of global agrifood systems. 

“We are all in this boat together,” the Director-General said, emphasizing the importance of making agri-food systems more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable to achieve what the organization calls the four Betters – better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life.

Qu also thanked all FAO staff and especially senior management for what he described as their day-and-night efforts to handle the evolving situation following recent decisions by the Government of the United States of America, which he noted had required rapid management of 106 terminated projects with a total value of $384 million and affecting about 1,240 employees.

The organization has a diversified resource mobilization strategy and prepared plans in anticipation of the U.S. decisions to establish tariffs, the press release states. 

"As foreseen, our overall voluntary contributions for the first three months of this year are noticeably below the previous three record-setting years,” the Director-General added. "Participants in the Council and the Conference in June need to ensure that the budget level they approve will enable the Organization to meet the increasing needs for our professional and technical support to Members,” he added.