If we can’t get an agreement on cutting food tarriffs and limiting market-distorting agricultural subsidies now, while food prices are surging (see graph), then when we will ever?
If we can’t get an agreement on cutting food tarriffs and limiting market-distorting agricultural subsidies now, while food prices are surging (see graph), then when we will ever?
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One problem is that, in the short term, cutting agricultural subsidies will raise world food prices. It may be that this would be good in the long run be provoking a supply response and raising farm incomes, but it’s far from clear that higher food prices do the latter for the very poorest (many of whom are net food producers at harvest time and net consumers the rest of the year).
Dani Rodrik says a similar thing here:
http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2008/07/dont-cry-for-doha.html