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Strategic Policy for Food Security


This article first discusses how large agricultural subsidies in the United States and the European Union are distorting the prices of grain and threatening the food security of countries in the South and the Asia Pacific. The GATT-WTO ratification debate is then revisited to show that proponents of GATT-WTO used it to advance their agenda of trade liberalization. With the importation of rice and corn above the minimum access volumes and the non-delivery of the resources that were supposed to constitute the GATT "safety net," the food security situation of rice and corn farmers has deteriorated. A "strategic policy" for food security is recommended in which the main components are a revision of the GATT Agricultural Accord; strict controls on grain imports; use of a flexible trade policy to lower input costs; acceleration of land reform, and the creation of "food security councils."


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