Trade and Agricultural Policy

Trade and Agricultural Policies
Tom Hutson received the 2006 Steward of the Land Award from American Farmland Trust, a Hewlett grantee developing viable agricultural policy options that serve rural interests in the U.S. and developing countries.

While aid to underdeveloped countries is imperative, international trade has a far greater potential to permanently improve the lives of the world’s poor. Thus, a key goal of the Global Development Program is to eliminate policy barriers that restrict trade opportunities for agricultural producers in developing countries. Our grantmaking in 2006 focused on:

  • Reforming trade policies that are weighted against developing countries. If rich countries fully opened their markets to all agricultural products from developing countries, the value to those countries would be almost double that of all current development assistance. To this end, the Program advanced agricultural trade policy reform, especially the Doha Round of multilateral negotiations at the World Trade Organization.
  • Reforming rich countries’ farm policies. The Foundation also funded initiatives to eliminate the trade-distorting effects of U.S. farm and food aid policies, the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy, and Japanese and Korean protectionism.
Trade and Agricultural Policy Grants Authorized in 2006
 
2006 Highlights

At the Doha Round, Hewlett grantees the German Marshall Fund, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and the International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council contributed specific recommendations that were adopted by World Trade Organization negotiators: duty- and quota-free access, tiered cuts in subsidies and tariffs, and caps on trade-distorting subsidies. The German Marshall Fund and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development also led the debate on “aid for trade,” generating recommendations that were incorporated in the official task force report on that subject. While negotiations continue, it is still unclear what the outcome will be.

In 2006, we built a broad coalition for U.S. agricultural policy reform: international development groups such as Bread for the World Institute and Oxfam; environmental groups such as Environmental Defense and the Environmental Working Group; and taxpayer and budget organizations such as Taxpayers for Common Sense, Citizens Against Government Waste, and the Cato Institute. As convener, the Foundation successfully brought these grantees together to start developing common communications and policy research strategies.

2007 Goals
 
  • Invest in U.S. agricultural reform organizations
  • Develop concrete alternatives to current U.S. farm and food aid policies
  • Support grantees in key European countries in their work to build a case for agricultural policy reforms in the European Union
  • Expand U.S. and E.U. trade preference programs for the poorest countries
  • Support efforts to restart and reach a deal favorable to developing countries in the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations
  • Support reforms of developing countries’ trade and agricultural policies
  • Fund independent policy research institutes within developing countries

For more information, please visit the Foundation Web site.