An FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission visited Timor-Leste, the world’s newest independent country, from 15 April to 5 May 2003 to review and analyze the food supply and demand situation in the context of the country’s macro-economic situation, and to forecast import requirements including potential food needs in marketing year 2003/04 (April/March), with particular attention to the needs of the most vulnerable groups.

Many developing countries in their WTO negotiating proposals on market access have called for the option for them to set appropriate levels of bound tariffs, as special and differential treatment, for selected products vital for food and livelihood security. None of the proposals however is specific on the level of these tariffs, and it is the purpose of this paper to illustrate an approach to quantify them. From a reading...

FAO’s first forecast of world cereal production in 2003 is 1 895 million tonnes, 62 million tonnes up from the poor 2002 harvest and above the average of the past five years. The outputs of both wheat and coarse grains are forecast to increase by about 4 percent to 591.5 million tonnes and 908 million tonnes respectively, while the rice crop (milled basis) is anticipated to recover by 2 percent...

Global cereal output in 2002 is estimated at 1 838 million tonnes, slightly up from the forecast in December, but still 3.3 percent down from the previous year. However, given the expected expansion in cereal utilization in 2002/03, world cereal stocks for crop years ending in 2003 could plunge to their lowest level since the early 1970s. Prospects for 2003 cereal production are mixed. Early indications for the 2003 wheat crops...

This is a previously unpublished (2001) report in which a strategy is introduced to increase the yield of the traditional fibre industry of rural societies.

The sugar market in Brazil has a strong relationship with the ethanol market. The Brazilian government has now abolished all the sugar market intervention measures except for the control on the ethanol-gasoline blend ratio. In this study, implications of a change in blend ratio to the sugar markets, particularly in its production resource use is investigated by applying a newly developed Ethanol-sugar market projection model. The model simulation result shows...

The report concludes with a brief discussion of some ongoing debates and the potential role of governments with respect to voluntary social and environmental standards. The first issue of debate is local flexibility versus global credibility of certification programmes. Involvement of a variety of stakeholders in standard-setting is important to ensure...

Europe, and in particular the European Union (EU) is a key market for date exporters. Although the EU imports of dates represent only 10 percent of world imports in volume, they account for some 30 percent in value. This reflects the fact that EU import prices for dates are comparatively much higher than the world average. However, the value of EU imports has been relatively stagnant over the last decade...

This paper reflects on the GATT/WTO legal aspects of social and environmental standards and voluntary certification and labelling programmes in agriculture. The paper focuses on programmes with an international scope and with standards relevant for the crop production sector, including labelling of derived food products. The purpose of the paper is to advise governments and standard setting and labelling organizations alike by presenting the most relevant provisions in the WTO...

Although given prominence in the context of the current World Trade Organization (WTO) trade negotiations, trade reforms are generally a component of a wider set of economic and institutional reforms. The complexity of reform packages, the wide variation in policy sets, the context within which they are used, and the thoroughness with which they are followed through, makes it extremely difficult to isolate the impact of specific trade reforms on...