Trade and food security: achieving a better balance between national priorities and the collective good ©FAO

1. The State of
Agricultural Commodity Markets
2015–16
Trade and food security: achieving a better balance
between national priorities and the collective good
9 December 2015
FAO Headquarters

2. Why “trade and food security”?
• High on both trade and development agendas
• Difficulties in addressing issue in policy processes at all
levels
• Significant divergence in understanding/ perspectives
on many aspects
• Inconclusive evidence
• High level of context-specificity
The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2015–16

3. Objectives
• Reduce current polarization in debates by providing
evidence and clarity on:
– key issues and disputed narratives
– relationship between trade and food security
– trade policy supportive of food security
• Improve consideration of trade and food security in the
trade and development agenda
– articulating trade-related concerns in processes at global,
regional, national levels
– strengthening governance of trade and food security
The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2015–16

4. Changing nature of agricultural
trade
• Global trade in food products will continue to expand
rapidly
– but the structure and pattern of trade will differ
significantly by commodity and region, with
important implications for food security
• Greater participation in global trade likely to be
reflected in most countries’ trade strategies
– however, opening to trade needs to be
appropriately managed if trade is to improve food
security outcomes
The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2015–16

5. Evolution of trade in agricultural
products by region, 2000–2024
The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2015–16

6. Relationship between trade and
food security
• Trade affects each of 4 dimensions of food security:
availability, access, utilization, stability
– Immediate effects on food production, total supply, prices,
employment, government revenue
– In longer run, effects on competition, marketing,
infrastructure, value chain development, investments
– Short- and long-term effects could differ; thus difficult to
generalize
The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2015–16

7. Trade and 4 pillars of food
security: channels of interaction
The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2015–16

8. Trade policy and food security
• Trade policy objectives:
– address different dimensions of food security
– differ across countries
– change over time
– no single most “appropriate” policy instrument
• Appropriateness of different trade policies largely
determined by longer-term economic transformation
processes
– need to differentiate short-term responses from
longer-term strategies
The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2015–16

9. Strengthening global, regional,
national policy processes
• Strengthening policy-making “processes” –rather
than focusing on pros and cons of different
“policies” – will help:
– agree on common and shared objectives
– Identify mix of “policies” to achieve them
– assist in identifying relevant “policy space”
– increase coherence and predictability of policies
– reconcile national and global food security objectives
The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2015–16

10. The State of
Agricultural Commodity Markets
2015–16
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