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Strengthening Food Security Through Global Trade

Nov 3rd, 2023 • by S. Gustafson

With one in six people around the world almost entirely dependent on international trade to meet their food needs, agricultural trade can clearly play a pivotal role in both addressing and exacerbating food security challenges. While progress has been made to bring attention to food security needs in trade negotiations in recent years, harmful policies like temporary food export restrictions are still a common reaction to price spikes, market disruptions, and production shortfalls – shocks that are likely to become increasingly frequent due to climate change and ongoing conflicts.

Advancing agricultural trade reforms: Latin American contributions to the multilateral trading system

Aug 9th, 2023 • by GLORIA ABRAHAM PERALTA, ADRIANA CAMPOS, VALERIA PIÑEIRO, AND ELSA OLIVETTI

Multilateral trade negotiations over agriculture present a complex set of challenges: Finding a balance between the diverse interests and positions of the 164 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is exceedingly difficult due to the importance and varied sensitivities of this sector across countries. Those with significant agrifood exports want new market opportunities and thus promote greater trade liberalization; other members, generally importers, prefer to focus on increasing domestic production and protecting their domestic markets.