Key messages
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Trade policy has a critical role to play in eradicating global hunger by 2030, but trade alone cannot address all of the socioeconomic and political challenges that influence food security and nutrition. |
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Sound policies for food security and nutrition balance a reliance on trade with domestic production to ensure stable food availability and accessibility. At the same time, policies should raise income levels for the rural poor and
improve nutritional value in food chains. |
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FAO emphasizes evidence-based decision-making to ensure that trade and trade policies contribute to the achievement of food security and nutrition. |
Publications
COVID-19: Channels of transmission to food and agriculture
05/10/2020
FAO is analysing and providing updates on the emerging COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on agricultural markets—effects that are still largely unknown. Most current assessments generally foresee a contraction in both supply of and demand for agricultural products, and point to possible disruptions in trade and logistics. On the supply side, widely different views remain on the duration of the shocks, the price dynamics, differential impacts between domestic and international markets, differences across countries and commodities, the likely paths of recovery, and the policy actions to remedy the various shock waves. On the demand side, there is near ubiquitous agreement that agricultural demand and trade would slow-down, with contractions stemming from a deceleration in overall economic activity (GDP growth) and rising rates of unemployment. While food and agricultural systems are exposed to both demand and supply side shocks (symmetric), these shocks are not expected to take place in parallel (asynchronous) since, inter alia, consumers can draw on savings, food stocks and safety nets.
Trade and Sustainable Development Goal 2 – Policy options and their trade-offs
13/09/2020
With trade recognized as a means of implementation under Agenda 2030, policy-makers will need to ensure that trade, and policies affecting trade and markets, are taken into consideration as part of their efforts to achieve SDG 2. The five targets that set out the level and ambition of SDG 2 (ending hunger; ending all forms of malnutrition; doubling the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers; ensuring sustainable food production systems; and maintaining genetic diversity), as well as trade itself, often constitute distinct policy priorities for governments. Trade and related policy measures that may be designed to achieve one target can potentially have unintended negative consequences that undermine the achievement of other targets, both within the country where the measure is applied and in the trading partner countries. It is therefore important that policy-makers identify and recognize areas in which difficult tradeoffs may be needed between competing policy objectives, and identify possible ways in which these can be addressed. Furthermore, while the different targets set out under SDG 2 are mutually interdependent and inter-related, it is important to address the trade policy dimension of each component individually as part of a broader plan of action.
Strengthening sector policies for better food security and nutrition results: Trade
13/09/2017
Trade in agricultural products has expanded almost threefold in value terms over the past decade and is expected to continue to increase over the coming years. As such, it will play an increasingly important role in influencing the extent and nature of food security. While agricultural trade can have important benefits for food security and nutrition, the challenge is to ensure that its expansion works for, and not against, the elimination of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. Policy mak ers formulating trade policies must prioritize long-term structural transformation objectives over short-term political or commercial interests. This guidance note aims to support policy makers and agriculture stakeholders in promoting greater coherence between trade and agricultural policies and identifying the policy space within trade agreements for developing countries to address food security concerns. It also discusses the appropriateness of different trade policy measures in improving foo d security.
