Trade and Food Security: Conceptualizing the Linkages
How will the liberalization of trade in agriculture including food impact developing countries? To answer, we must distinguish between importers and exporters of the products as also between liberalization in the developed and developing countries. The paper makes these distinctions and outlines a conceptual framework within which to address the question. It also offers a simple model within which the impact of the liberalization on the poor can be analyzed. The paper argues that since the removal of domestic and export subsidies on agricultural goods will raise the prices these products, the large majority of the least developed countries, which are net agricultural importers, will lose from the change. This is in contrast to the claims by many senior World Bank officials and NGOs such as Oxfam that blame agricultural protectionism in the OECD countries as the principal barrier to growth in the least developed countries today.