FAO's Outlook for the Food and Agricultural Sector in the Context of Trade Liberalization

This paper is basically a composite of presentations made by FAO at the World Food Summit in November 1996. Some reflections have been added that relate specifically to the Caribbean Region. The paper is divided into four sections: World Perspective on Agricultural Trade; Food Security, Sustainability and Trade Liberalization; Impacts of the Uruguay Round on Agricultural Trade; Agricultural Trade and Trade Liberalization in the Caribbean Region. In the first section - World Perspective on Agricultural Trade - major changes taking place in the international trade environment are outlined. Then, the globalization of markets and some conclusions of the Uruguay Round are mentioned. Finally, a brief overview of the last two decades of world agricultural trade is described. In the second section - Food Security, Sustainability and Trade Liberalization - definitions and concepts are presented and the relationships between these definitions and concepts are discussed. The third section - Impacts of the Uruguay Round on 1 Agricultural Trade Liberalization - has a discussion of the agreement on agriculture from the Uruguay Round and matters related to it. Two important issues are: (1) that only partial liberalization of agricultural trade will occur, and (2) that countries and regions will not share equally in the benefits from increased trade. Based on world-wide experiences, the impact of trade liberalization on Latin America and the Caribbean is presented in section four - Agricultural Trade and Trade Liberalization in the Caribbean Region. The focus is on the Caribbean experience during recent years. A detailed Bibliography used for the preparation of the document is presented at the end of the paper.