G20 deputies meet in Mexico to try to end food price worries
TOP CIVIL servants from the G20 nations are meeting in Mexico in an attempt to hammer out common ground on food prices, which have rocketed this year.
The two-day meeting is intended to prepare the ground ahead of November’s meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors.
Britain’s top representative at the gathering of deputies in Mexico City is the Treasury’s director general Michael Ellam, who sits on the department’s executive management board and takes responsibility for international and EU negotiations.
Food prices have been pushed up by droughts in the US and South Africa – corn prices hit record highs on the Chicago Board of Trade last month, and soybeans followed this month.
But the G20’s agenda is wider than this one market, with negotiations also covering the Eurozone crisis and the implementation of international financial regulations.