USDA/FAS GAIN Report MX5026

Report Highlights

A new center, the Center for Studies of Sustainable Rural Development and Food Sovereignty, was recently launched to provide expert guidance and analysis on agricultural issues to the Mexican Lower Chamber of Deputies. This Center appears in many ways similar to the Congressional Research Service and is expected to provide a steady source of agricultural expertise to the Lower Chamber of Deputies.

FAS/Mexico’s Executive Summary

The Center for Studies of Sustainable Rural Development and Food Sovereignty was recently established by Mexico’s Lower Chamber of Deputies. It is expected to support the Lower Chamber by providing studies and analysis of issues affecting Mexican agriculture, rural development, and associated fields. The Center will work closely with Mexican universities and research centers to meet the research requests posed by the Lower Chamber, which also plays a large role in securing, and renewing, its funding. Center staff are permanent employees who should not be affected by changes in the Mexican political landscape. Moreover, the Center itself will aim to avoid political leanings in its analyses and intends to provide strictly objective reports.

Background

Proposed by Diputado Victor Suarez (PRD) of the Lower Chamber of Deputies, the Center for Studies of Sustainable Rural Development and Food Sovereignty (CEDRSSA, by its Spanish acronym) was created on May 10, 2004 by Article 49, Part 3 of the Organic Law of the General Congress of Mexico. Federal funds were apportioned for its creation and CEDRSSA funding was again approved for this year. While future funding is not guaranteed,
the Center is expected to receive support indefinitely provided it consistently and successfully meets its mission. In addition, the Federal Government will finance the construction of a new building for CEDRSSA, to be located near the Lower Chamber of Deputies in a new Center for Legislative Studies building.

The Lower Chamber was instrumental in the creation of the Center and securing its budget, creating a body to advise it on agricultural and rural development issues. More specifically, CEDRSSA will focus on supporting the Lower Chamber’s Committee for the Study of Rural Development and will provide scientific research and analysis on these issues as well as analyze potential legislation in these fields. This committee also authorizes the Center’s budget and sets its substantive research agenda. However, the Center will also support other Congressional members, especially considering that half of the Diputados are members of the rural sector. CEDRSSA will attempt to keep reports and recommendations as far from political leanings as possible and, instead, provide objective results and analyses.

The full staff has only been in place since mid-October and was assigned to the Center according to the current proportion of representation between the different parties in Congress. However, while the assignments carried political overtones, all staff had to meet rigorous criteria for selection. In fact, a majority of them hold post-graduate degrees, many from universities in the United States and Europe. In addition, assigned staff will fall under the civil servant category and will remain in their positions regardless of changes in the political landscape. The staff, which represent different agencies within the government, currently number 28. The Center’s Director, Dr. Cesar Turrent Fernandez, is guaranteed a six year term that, though unlikely, may be renewed for another six years. Dr. Turrent was nominated for the position by Diputado Cruz Lopez (PRI) of the Agriculture and Livestock
Commission, which then forwarded his name, along with two others nominated by the Commission, for a full vote by the Lower Chamber of Deputies.

CEDRSSA is divided into four main areas:

• Environment, Technical and Social Studies;

• Profitability and Competitiveness – encompassing studies on production chain issues, financing and inputs;

• Evaluation of Public Policies; and

• Strategic Proposals – developing long-term proposals within the legal and institutional framework of the Mexican Government to establish successful, integrated programs.

In addition, CEDRSSA will perform cross-cutting studies on issues that fall into more than one of the above areas.

CEDRSSA will work with an External Advisory Council to coordinate CEDRSSA’s research agenda. This Council will include domestic farmer and producer organizations, State governments (through the Mexican Association of Secretaries of Agricultural Development), and academic, research and strategic institutions focusing on national development. Moreover, CEDRSSA will be able to request research, studies, and evaluations via collaborations it establishes with universities and national investigative centers focused on addressing problems facing the rural sector. Lastly, CEDRSSA will also rely on the support of the Center for the Study of Public Finances (CEFP), the Center for the Study of Law and Parliamentary Investigation (CEDIP), and the Center for the Study of Social Issues and Public Opinion (CESOP) to accomplish its objectives.

In conjunction with the Advisory Council, CEDRSSA will prepare biannual working plans detailing future projects. These projects will be undertaken in tandem with national research institutions, universities, and national centers for strategic investigations. Furthermore, policy evaluation, analysis of policy implications, and the formulation of future public policy proposals will be performed in collaboration with rural organizations and producers, local governments, universities, and research centers.

According to official documents, CEDRSSA will be granted the administrative, material, and financial resources required to meet its objectives. CEDRSSA’s 2004 budget was initially set at 0.79% of the Lower Chamber of Deputies’ 2004 budget. Based on the Lower Chamber’s three billion-peso budget, this would have amounted to almo st 24 million pesos. This equation was later adjusted and the Center was allotted significant funding in 2004, totaling 45 million pesos. Of this sum, more than 25 million pesos were earmarked for the construction of the Center for Legislative Studies building. However, considering that the Center was not fully staffed until October 2004, the remaining budget provided enough financial support for CEDRSSA. For 2005, the Lower Chamber provided roughly 35 million pesos from its budget and directed an additional 25 million pesos to CEDRSSA from the Congressionally allocated budget for the rural sector, totaling 60 million pesos for the Center
in 2005. As a reference, CEFP’s 2003 budget was 30.8 million pesos and CEDIP’s was 19.4 million pesos.

The goal of the Center is both to research issues affecting agriculture and study potential agricultural legislation and government programs to provide scientific, legal, and economic analyses to Congress. Some issues CEDRSSA may already be considering include: analyzing the true costs of a possible Mexican farm bill (Agricultural Planning Law), NAFTA quota and tariff elimination in 2008, and performing cost-benefit analyses of other proposed laws. In
many ways, the Center could mirror a number of U.S. agencies or organizations, most notably the Congressional Research Service. In addition, its responsibilities may bear some similarities to those of the General Accounting Office, the Congressional Budget Office, and the House Committee on Agriculture.

Under its charter, CEDRSSA must also:

• Monitor and analyze Federal Government compliance with the objectives and mandates established in the Law of Sustainable Rural Development;

• Evaluate the design and execution of federal programs aimed at promoting sustainable rural development and food sovereignty;

• Analyze and project the future tendencies of the foreign and domestic food and agriculture sectors;

• Analyze the impacts and repercussions of proposed laws and decrees as well as current laws and decrees targeted at the national agricultural sector;

• Provide guidance to the Commissions (like Congressional committees) of Agriculture and Livestock, Rural Development, Land Reform, Fisheries, Natural Resources and the Environment, Water Resources, and other relevant commissions focusing on the economy, rural society, and rural-city relationships;

• Systematically analyze the quantity and quality of Mexican dietary habits;

• Analyze the current domestic land tenure situation;

• Perform historical and prospective analyses of the target pric e program for all targeted crops and regions as well as the execution of that program;

• Monitor information about agricultural supports and subsidies and their impact on the profitability and competitiveness of agricultural producers;

• Analyze all measures applied by Mexican commercial partners and their impact on the domestic production and foreign trade of Mexico;

• Catalog and analyze Mexican genetic resources and biodiversity as well as current laws protecting them to maintain sovereignty over these resources;

• Monitor compliance with current Mexican biosecurity regulations and the presence of biotechnology in domestic production and consumption;

• Monitor and evaluate the impact and implementation of the NAFTA Agricultural Chapter;

• Monitor and analyze the impact of the 2002 Farm Bill and identify legal resources to protect domestic production from unfair practices;

• Analyze international commercial agreements subscribed to by Mexico and monitor the compliance of trading partners with their obligations under such agreements, especially the unfair use of direct and indirect export subsidies; and

• Monitor and analyze the existing asymmetries between Mexico and its trading partners under free trade agreements and determine ways to improve national competitiveness in these areas.

FAS Comment

The Center appears to be a positive development that should benefit the Lower Chamber of Deputies and the Mexican people they represent. Considering that Diputados serve two-year terms and are not eligible for reelection, CEDRSSA should provide both institutional knowledge on furthering the agricultural agenda within Congress as well as useful analyses and guidance about specific agricultural issues and legislative proposals. It is
too early to determine whether the Center will be successful since much will depend on the caliber of the staff, the funding allocated to CEDRSSA, and the freedom the Center will have to be truly independent.