The World Trade Organization and the Millennium Development Goals: the role of multilateral trade negotiations in achieving food security for the world's most vulnerable populations

The Millennium Development Goals set a target of halving the number of people who live with hunger and food insecurity by the year 2015. The Goals also aim to further develop an open and non-discriminatory international trading system, while at the same time addressing the needs of the world's least developed countries. But are these goals compatible given the direct relationship between agricultural trade policy and food security issues, given that the Doha Development Round is currently deadlocked over agricultural trading schemes? The World Trade Organization's activities, in partnership with the World Bank and other organs of the United Nations, can support efforts to meet the short-term goal of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals targets on food security. But more importantly, they are vital to sustaining the gains made in developing countries beyond the Millennium Development Goals deadline. This Note maps out a basic framework of the issues between trade and food security, the effects of the interests of key players on the trade negotiations, and prior attempts by the World Trade Organization to improve food security in developing nations. Finally, it suggests a pragmatic way to break the Doha Round deadlock while maximizing the potential of the Doha Agricultural Negotiations so the mechanisms put in place can be used to sustain the legacy of the Millennium Development Goals for years to come.
I. INTRODUCTION II. THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND FOOD SECURITY A. Defining Food Security B. The Global Economic Downturn and the MDG Targets III. MIXING THE DEVELOPING AND DEVELOPED WORLD [...]