Commodities
Commodities are a key factor in terms of poverty alleviation and sustainable development, with a large number of developing countries still commodity-dependent. Several commodities have been subject in the last years to huge speculation movements and to high volatility in terms of prices and supply. This volatility, coupled with the wider global economic and financial crisis, amplifies the impact of commodities on developing countries. While from a policy point of view commodities should still be considered mainly under the angles of trade, development, agriculture and environment, they increasingly touch upon other EU policy areas such as security or health.
The genesis of the reasons which led the international community to reserve a particular treatment to the commodities, ascent to second half of the 20th century, when the need to ensure regular supplies at stable, equitable and remunerative prices, had led the industrialised countries to conclude special agreements with the countries producing sensitive products, which are strategic, like rubber, coffee or cotton. This involved initiatives in semi public statute, where the participation of the states was shared with a marked implication of the private sector. The commodities represented the main resource for producing countries and any policy on the matter was rather a supporting policy to the import incomes, matched by economic mechanisms on market intervention to stabilise the international prices.
The European Union is member of several international commodity agreements (ICAs), even if the legal form of this participation changes in function of their scope. It is as from 2001, with the ratification of the Agreement on Coffee, that the Council recognised the European Union's exclusive competence, in light of the fact that the commercial element represented the principal objective overarching all the other actions. This arrangement was extended gradually to other agreements including in particular cocoa, jute and lately rubber. Agreements on agricultural products such as grains, sugar and olive oil already recognised the exclusive competence of the European Union. Regarding the International Tropical Timber agreement, due to its environmental dimension, the competence remains shared between the European Union and the Member States.
The main purposes of ICAs are to promote international cooperation in commodity matters, to provide with a forum for consultations among the different stakeholders, to promote the sustainable expansion of the different commodity economies and to collect and disseminate information concerning the production, trade and consumption of the different products. Some of them, such as coffee and cocoa, also aim indirectly at the market equilibrium and at its stability through the monitoring of supply and demand. Efforts to improve sustainability in its three major pillars (economic, social and environmental) are being increasingly enhanced within the different intergovernmental commodity bodies (ICBs), and sustainability is indeed becoming a major goal for which specificdebates, information exchanges and concrete measures are being carried out.
Recent studies on ICBs have shown and most stakeholders acknowledge that the role of ICBs is evolving. Mirroring wider changes in society and international trade, ICBs involve today more systematically producers and consumers as well as state and non-state actors. They are also becoming more oriented towards sustainable development, with its environmental, social and economic dimensions.
List of International Commodity Bodies (ICBs) falling under the scope of the Working Party on Commodities of the Council of the European Union
Policy archive
Website of the Commission on Commodities