Band-Aids Promoted Countries continue to meet in Geneva in an effort to find agreement on the food security proposal from the G33 developing countries. The goal is to adopt something at the ministerial meeting in Bali in December. The G33 wants additional policy flexibility (read protectionism) in order to manage their centralized food subsidy programs. The end game is some kind of compromise over policy space (e.g. ability to veer from current trade disciplines), and safeguards or constraint mechanisms to reduce the accompanying market distortions. However, the whole discussion involves salving the symptoms rather than curing the underlying disease prevalent in most of the G33 countries – poor governance and too many constraints on th...

TAGS – Asia