IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ssefpa/v16y2024i2d10.1007_s12571-023-01426-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

WTO and a permanent solution for food security: striving for a hunger-free world

Author

Listed:
  • Sachin Kumar Sharma

    (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade)

  • Ahamed Ashiq Shajahan

    (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade)

Abstract

Food security at the WTO remains one of the significant unaddressed demands of the developing country members. The Agreement on Agriculture has restricted the flexibility of the developing country members to administer price support backed public stockholding programmes for food security purposes, mainly due to the Amber box limit and the methodology for calculating market price support. Despite many deliberations and Ministerial mandates, no concrete solution has been found. The only option available to the developing country members is the Bali Decision on public stockholding, which is limited in product and programme coverage. For a permanent solution, this paper examines the options of addressing the flaws in the market price support calculation methodology through (a) consideration of inflation, (b) moving external reference price, (c) notifying in stronger currency, and (d) increasing the de minimis limit. Further, a solution based on the Bali peace clause has also been analysed. The paper finds that a ‘one glove fits all’ is not an appropriate approach for a permanent solution. Instead, multiple options or a combination of options should be made available according to the agricultural conditionalities of the members.

Suggested Citation

  • Sachin Kumar Sharma & Ahamed Ashiq Shajahan, 2024. "WTO and a permanent solution for food security: striving for a hunger-free world," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 16(2), pages 321-337, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:ssefpa:v:16:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s12571-023-01426-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s12571-023-01426-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12571-023-01426-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12571-023-01426-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Williams,Jeffrey C. & Wright,Brian D., 2005. "Storage and Commodity Markets," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521023399, Enero-Abr.
    2. Anne Marie Thow & Sachin Kumar Sharma & Cut Novianti Rachmi, 2019. "An analysis of Indonesia’s shrinking food security policy space under the WTO," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(6), pages 1275-1287, December.
    3. Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio, 2014. "On food security stocks, peace clauses, and permanent solutions after Bali," IFPRI discussion papers 1388, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Galtier, F., 2015. "Identifying, estimating and correcting the biases in WTO rules on public stocks. A proposal for the post-Bali food security agenda," Working Papers MoISA 201505, UMR MoISA : Montpellier Interdisciplinary center on Sustainable Agri-food systems (social and nutritional sciences): CIHEAM-IAMM, CIRAD, INRAE, L'Institut Agro, Montpellier SupAgro, IRD - Montpellier, France.
    5. World Bank, 2012. "Using Public Food Grain Stocks to Enhance Food Security," World Bank Publications - Reports 11878, The World Bank Group.
    6. Nakuja, Tekuni & Kerr, William A., 2019. "International Trade And Food Security: Can Public Stockholding Be Dismissed?," International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Economics and Finance, vol. 7(2), April.
    7. Sachin Kumar Sharma, 2016. "The WTO and Food Security," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-981-10-2179-4, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Galtier, Franck, 2023. "Take an inch for a mile. About an error of metrics in WTO rules and its impact on the ability of countries to build public stocks for food security," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    2. Ictsd, 2016. "Evaluating Nairobi: What Does the Outcome Mean for Trade in Food and Farm Goods?," Post-Nairobi WTO Agenda 320180, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD).
    3. Sachin Kumar Sharma & Adeet Dobhal & Surabhi Agrawal & Abhijit Das, 2021. "Demystifying Blue Box Support to Agriculture Under the WTO: Implications for Developing Countries," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 22(2), pages 161-185, September.
    4. Plantinga, Andrew J. & Provencher, Bill, 2001. "Internal Consistency In Models Of Optimal Resource Use Under Uncertainty," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20712, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    5. Nicolas Legrand, 2023. "War in Ukraine: The rational “wait‐and‐see” mode of global food markets," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(2), pages 626-644, June.
    6. repec:onb:oenbwp:y::i:29:b:1 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Durmaz, Tunç, 2016. "Precautionary Storage in Electricity Markets," Discussion Papers 2016/5, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    8. Alexander E. Saak, 2002. "Location and Marketing under Marketing Assistance Loan and Loan Deficiency Payment Programs," Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) Publications (archive only) 02-wp297, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    9. Brennan, Donna C., 2002. "Savings and technology choice for risk averse farmers," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 46(4), pages 1-13.
    10. Thibault Fally & James Sayre, 2018. "Commodity Trade Matters," 2018 Meeting Papers 172, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    11. Jian Li & Jean‐Paul Chavas, 2023. "A dynamic analysis of the distribution of commodity futures and spot prices," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(1), pages 122-143, January.
    12. Parcell, Joseph L., 2000. "The Impact Of The Ldp On Corn And Soybean Basis In Missouri," 2000 Conference, April 17-18 2000, Chicago, Illinois 18932, NCR-134 Conference on Applied Commodity Price Analysis, Forecasting, and Market Risk Management.
    13. Grossmann, Axel & Kim, Jintae, 2022. "The impact of U.S. dollar movements and U.S. dollar states on non-perishable commodity prices," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    14. Francesco Amodio & Leonardo Baccini & Giorgio Chiovelli & Michele Di Maio, 2025. "Weather shocks affect trade policy: Evidence from preferential trade agreements," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 107(2), pages 696-717, March.
    15. Gao, Lin & Hitzemann, Steffen & Shaliastovich, Ivan & Xu, Lai, 2022. "Oil volatility risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 456-491.
    16. Brockhaus, Jan & Kalkuhl, Matthias & Kozicka, Marta, 2016. "What Drives India’s Rice Stocks? Empirical Evidence," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235659, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Roberts, Michael J. & Tran, A. Nam, 2013. "Conditional Suspension of the US Ethanol Mandate using Threshold Price inside a Competitive Storage Model," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150717, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Li, J. & Chavas, J.-P., 2018. "How Have China s Agricultural Price Support Policies Affected Market Prices?: A Quantile Regression Evaluation," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277557, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Fabienne Féménia & Alexandre Gohin, 2010. "Faut-il une intervention publique pour stabiliser les marchés agricoles ? Revue des questions non résolues," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 91(4), pages 435-456.
    20. Frank Asche, Atle Oglend, and Petter Osmundsen, 2017. "Modeling UK Natural Gas Prices when Gas Prices Periodically Decouple from the Oil Price," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    21. Samuel Garrido, 2022. "The Fruit of Regulation: Wine, Regulations, Subsidies, Quality and Cooperatives in Franco's Spain and Beyond," Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) 2204, Asociación Española de Historia Económica.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ssefpa:v:16:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s12571-023-01426-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.