International trade’s contribution to food security and sustainability

Increasing the openness of markets for farm products to international trade is one of the fastest ways to reduce global poverty and simultaneously reduce the resources needed to feed the world sustainably. Trade liberalization also would raise the returns from investments in agricultural R&D nationally and globally and, provided optimal environmental policies are in place, is also likely to make a net improvement to the world’s natural environment. While achieving such reform multilaterally seems more challenging now than a quarter-century ago, and even mega-regional trade agreements are proving to be difficult to reach, the unilateral reform option remains for each country.