Do OECD global forums on agriculture help developing nations in trade?

Agriculture plays a vital role in domestic and international policies of many countries. In fact, developing countries have lower education, poor health care, and lack of technologies, but they have highly diverse in natural resources, populations, cultures and economic policies, which they can compete with developed nations on cheap labors. Also, their exporting focus on primary products such as agricultural goods, raw materials, fuels, and textile. These products are important to the world’s poor because they represent more than half of low income nations’ export.

 Although many of these governments have intervened in many different ways in domestic and international markets to support agriculture, the agriculture sector contributed to national incomes and employment in advanced countries. Moreover, these governments contributed to a reduction in economic efficiency, damage to the environment, distortion in production, and trade barriers. It can lead to financial cost that are borne by consumers and taxpayers. It’s a reason why OECD global forums on agriculture invited all the developed and developing economies to share experiences and explore how policies can more effectively achieve stated government objectives. Also, the purpose of the OECD is supporting and protecting mechanisms and regulations.

In my view, it is not sure that OECD global forums on agriculture can help the developing countries in trade, because subsidies of government in OECD countries (advanced nations) provide to the agricultural producers still remain high, approximately $227 billion (EUR 172 billion) in 2010. 

On the other hand, emerging economies such as China, Russia, and Brazil have much lower levels of support to agriculture. Not only these three countries, but also east Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and South Korea. It’s difficult for them to trade because many people will spend their money on manufactured goods rather than spending on primary goods. For example, falling 70 percent price of agriculture commodities is sold by developing nations.   Therefore, it is not fair for developing nations to compete in trade which they should have comparative advantage.