Food Security vs. Free Trade Agreements

Abstract

A transcription of remarks by an economist specializing in fair trade, this article analyzes the impact of globalization on the rural world of the developing world, attributed to structural adjustment programs, the GATT Uruguay Round agricultural agreements, and protectionist agricultural policies in developed nations. The author cites a 2005 World Bank report acknowledging historical policy errors toward the Latin American rural sector, and examines the shift from multilateral trade toward bilateral free-trade agreements, analyzing the Chilean case as a precedent for the Andean FTA and warning about the implications of intellectual-property rights over GM seeds for environmental sustainability and local public policy.