Agriculture, Development, and the Global Trading System

The book Agriculture, Development, and the Global Trading System: 2000–2015 was published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in September 2017.

The authors take a look of the complex relationship between the trading system and food security. Especially, they identify two elements as very important in that context: the Doha Development Agenda of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the issue of whether food price volatility can be managed through trade instruments.

The book also seeks answers to the question of why trade and the World Trade Organization (WTO) matter for food security. While this relationship has been debated for a long time, the 2001– 2015 period saw some major changes to the global trading system that the authors feel have changed the terms and the intensity of that debate. 

The authors offer policy recommendations for how the global trading system can foster food security in the future. Their recommendations are to respect basic WTO rules, to eliminate trade distortions, to revamp multilateral trade negotiations, to make sure that regional and bilateral trade negotiations remain a stepping-stone toward multilateral outcomes, to avoid export restrictions and taxes and to favour cash transfers instead of food stocks.

More information and download the book Agriculture, development, and the global trading system: 2000– 2015

(ile/IFPRI)