BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

CURRENT ROUND OF WTO NEGOTIATIONS AND FOOD SECURITY CONCERNS OF NET-FOOD IMPORTING DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF BANGLADESH

Author: Mohammad Rafiqul Hasan Siddiqui, Khandokar Mohammad Istiak

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2009v30n1a2

ABSTRACT

Access to food is a fundamental human right. Rapid globalization has been changing the traditional system of food availability and leaving the fundamental demand for food in the hands of market forces. Moreover, food security in Net-Food Importing Developing Countries (NFIDCs) is likely to face further challenges as a result of the current round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations on agriculture. Although most of the developing countries depend on agriculture for their employment and livelihood, a large number of them are NFIDCs. These countries have opened up their agricultural sector to import food at a reasonable price; as a result, they have forced their farmers to face the global competition. In this backdrop, this paper examines the overall food security situation in Bangladesh as one of the NFIDCs. Countries like Bangladesh have often been made to adopt unilateral liberalization measures by the pressure from international financial institutions that in turn contribute to the stunting of the agriculture sector. To face the challenges of food security, the paper emphasizes on long-term measures such as supporting domestic food production, policy spacing to expand public expenditure on agriculture, harmonizing policies of international financial institutions, etc.