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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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December 7, 2009Philippines’ Aggressive Rice Purchases Could Spark Another CrisisPosted by Peter Timmer in Africa, Asia, Food & Agriculture, Global Development, World Trade Organization Tags: Agriculture, Rice Crisis
1 Comment »September 21, 2009A Good Start, but the G-20 Must Do More on Trade Preferences for Poor CountriesPosted by Randall Soderquist in Global Development, Trade Tags: Agriculture, G20, TradeThis is a joint posting with Kimberly Elliott and also appeared on the Huffington Post. With one important reservation, we welcome last week’s EU proposal that the upcoming Pittsburgh G-20 Summit “should adopt the “Everything But Arms” (EBA) initiative without delay to support people in developing countries suffering from the crisis.” The EBA nominally provides 100 percent duty-free, quota-free market access for exports from least-developed countries, so suggesting that the rest of the G-20 replicate it is clearly in line with a Sept. 2 letter sent by members of the CGD Global Trade Preference Reform Working Group. The letter called upon: Read More… 1 Comment »July 13, 2009Hip Hip…Hooray? Cautious Optimism for G8 Agricultural CommitmentsPosted by Jenny Aker in Aid Effectiveness, Food & Agriculture, Global Development, Regions Tags: Agriculture, Food Aid, G8, Obama Administration, OxfamLast week, the leaders of the Group of 8 pledged 20 billion dollars in agricultural aid, with the purpose of boosting agricultural productivity — especially in Africa. But will $20 billion over a three-year period help to feed many of the 1.02 billion people on earth who suffer from food insecurity? Read More… Comment »June 5, 2009GAO Report Highlights Costs of U.S. Food Aid RestrictionsPosted by Kimberly Ann Elliott in Food & Agriculture, Global Development Tags: Agriculture, Food, Food Aid, Food Crisis, Food Security, Huffington PostThis post originally appeared on the Huffington Post on June 5, 2009. According to a testimony before congress yesterday and a new Government Accountability Office report, congressional restrictions on U.S. food aid raise the costs of delivering it by as much as a third and delay it reaching hungry people by up to 100 days. When donors purchase food locally or regionally, it not only gets to needy people faster and more cheaply, it may also better match local preferences and nutrition needs. Yet, in the midst of last year’s global food price crisis, Congress passed a farm bill that continued the long-standing practice of requiring that food aid be purchased in the United States and that 75 percent of it be delivered by U.S.-flagged ships. Read More… 2 Comments »April 7, 2009G-20 And IMF Rhythms: The Problem Is Not the Direction but the SpeedPosted by Nora Lustig in Capitol Flows/Financial Crisis, Global Development, International Financial Institutions Tags: Agriculture, G20, IMFIf the commitments made last week by the heads of state at the G-20 meeting materialize quickly, this is good news indeed. The increase in available IMF and MDB resources for middle- and low-income countries, along with IMF’s announcement of a Flexible Credit Line which will allow countries to borrow amounts without pre-determined limits or conditionality, are crucial for helping these countries cope with the impact of the financial crisis. Increased resources and the right instruments to deliver them can prevent lots of pain for millions of poor people. The mere existence of these options will give many developing country governments more leeway to make counter-cyclical policy responses and reduce the impact of the crisis on economic growth. Read More… 1 Comment »March 13, 2009EPA Moving on U.S. Greenhouse Gas Registry: Next Step, Global CARMAPosted by Lawrence MacDonald in Climate Change Tags: Agriculture, CARMAThis is a joint posting with Robin Kraft Nearly two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine whether greenhouse gases (GHGs) pose a threat to peoples’ health or welfare – the first step toward regulation — the EPA this week issued a draft rule on a national GHG registry: Read More… Comment »February 27, 2009Obama FY10 Budget Charts Course to Doubling AidPosted by Sheila Herrling in Global Development, Migration and Labor Mobility, Modernizing U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: AgricultureYesterday, the Obama Administration released top-line numbers of its FY10 budget request. Of the whopping $3.6 trillion budget, $51.7 billion was allotted to the International Affairs Budget, an estimated 9.5% above the comparable amount for FY09. Note, however, that defining “comparable” is a bit tough this year because the Administration’s proposal brought all recurring spending (including that for Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan that has for years been funded through supplementals) into the base budget, stopping what had become a very bad practice. Our colleagues at the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign do a great job, as they do every year, of walking readers through a comparison. Comment »July 25, 2008Last Gasp for Doha?Posted by Kimberly Ann Elliott in News, Trade Tags: AgricultureTrade ministers are currently gathered at the World Trade Organization in Geneva to give one last push to delivering a Doha Round trade agreement before it is put on the shelf indefinitely. As it has been from the beginning, agriculture remains a key stumbling block (see my book, Delivering on Doha). US Trade Representative Susan Schwab started the week by offering to lower the overall ceiling for trade-distorting US farm subsidies from $22 billion to $15 billion. But the offer has been derided as meaningless by Indian, Brazilian, and other developing country negotiators because US subsidy payments are currently well below that ceiling as a result of the recent surge in commodity prices. (USDA projects payments in two of the three trade-distorting categories (excluding de minimis) will be less than $2 billion in this fiscal year.) Comment »July 9, 2008Scrap the G8Posted by Lawrence MacDonald in Africa, Asia, CGD Initiatives, China, Climate Change, Environment, Food Aid, G8, Global Education, Global Health, Global Health Policy, Global Warming, HIV/AIDS, Migration and Labor Mobility, Millennium Development Goals, News, Regions Tags: Agriculture, Food Aid, G8, HIV/AIDS, Millennium Development GoalsOnce again the G8 has come up tragically short on climate change and a host of urgent problems affecting poor people in developing countries. The good news is that they are at least discussing the right topics. The first Hokkaido G8 document, on the World Economy spills lots of ink on relations between rich and developing economies, including for example, reaffirmation of support for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. The next three policy papers — Environment and Climate Change, Development and Africa, and Global Food Security — all address topics that are at the heart of rich world-developing world ties (and, not coincidently, major areas of focus for CGD research and policy work). The bad news is that the G8, representing as it does the interests of the richest societies on the planet, is the wrong forum addressing global problems that touch on well-being of billions of people in the developing world. The lack of legitimacy is evident in the resulting mealy mouthed policy documents. 2 Comments »July 8, 2008Albright and Podesta Call for Rich Country Action on Food Crisis, Including Release of Japanese Rice StockpilePosted by Lawrence MacDonald in Agriculture, Food & Agriculture, Food Crisis, G8, Migration and Labor Mobility, News, Rural Development, Trade Tags: Agriculture, Food Crisis, G8, Rural DevelopmentFormer US secretary of state Madeleine Albright and John Podesta, former chief of staff to President Clinton and CEO of the Center for American Progress, have urged rich world leaders assembled for the G8 summit in Japan to take action on the global food crisis, including rapid release of Japanese rice stockpiles imported mostly from the US. In an Op-Ed in today’s Boston Globe they write:
Comment »June 30, 2008Lord Stern Calls for New Conditionality — On Climate and from Developing Countries this Time!Posted by Nancy Birdsall in CGD Initiatives, Climate Change, Environment, Global Warming, Migration and Labor Mobility Tags: AgricultureLord Nicholas Stern of Stern review fame delivered CGD’s Richard H. Sabot Lecture last week. It was superb, as Joel Meister reports. Nick managed the trick of combining technical clarity on the economic issues — economists can turn to his Ely lecture at the American Economics Association meeting in January of this year for the details — with passion and a compelling argument for non-economists. New this time was his insistence on the development imperative of addressing climate change, now and urgently. Comment »June 25, 2008Let them Eat: Tokyo Favors Subsidized Rice for Cattle Over World’s Poor?Posted by Tom Slayton in Agriculture, Food & Agriculture, Food Aid, G8, Human Rights, Migration and Labor Mobility, News, Trade Tags: Agriculture, Food Aid, G8, Human RightsA few weeks ago, our CGD Note, Unwanted Rice in Japan Can Solve the Rice Crisis — If Washington and Tokyo Act, created quite a stir. Policy makers and the public could not believe that Japan was feeding rice to animals at a time when millions of poor people were going hungry because food prices were unaffordable. Sadly, Tokyo’s Ministry of Agriculture still does not get it. Today’s press quotes the head of the ministry’s livestock department as saying that Japan plans to increase its subsidized sales of rice to its livestock sector by 50% to more than 600,0000 tons. At a time when millions of people are facing starvation, Japan is choosing to turn its rice stocks into cattle feed. Comment »June 20, 2008Earth to America: The Price of Gasoline Isn’t Too High, It’s Too LowPosted by Kevin Ummel in CGD Initiatives, Climate Change, Environment, Global Warming, Migration and Labor Mobility Tags: AgricultureOn Wednesday, President Bush joined presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in supporting the reversal of a long-standing ban on offshore oil drilling. Bush believes such action, along with exploitation of oil shale deposits and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, will reduce the price of gasoline for Americans. This follows the push made last month by McCain and Hillary Clinton for a summer “gas tax holiday.” While Democrats dismissed the latest proposal as yet another give away to Big Oil and Republicans gear up to push the issue in November, I can still find no politician willing to state the truth: Gasoline prices should be higher, not lower. Comment »May 19, 2008Kudos to Tokyo and Washington on Rice Sales — Et Tu, Thailand and India?Posted by Peter Timmer in Agriculture, Food & Agriculture, Food Crisis, Migration and Labor Mobility, News, Trade, World Trade Organization Tags: Agriculture, Food Crisis, World Trade OrganizationThis post is joint with Tom Slayton, a rice trade expert and former editor of The Rice Trader 4 Comments »May 1, 2008President Bush Can and Should Do More to Address the Food Crisis: Let Japan Sell Its Rice ReservesPosted by Peter Timmer in Food Aid, Food Crisis, Global Development, Migration and Labor Mobility Tags: Agriculture, Food Aid, Food CrisisThis posting is joint with Vijaya Ramachandran Today, President Bush called on Congress to provide another $770 million in food aid, in addition to the $200 million already allocated through the Department of Agriculture,in order "to keep our existing food aid programs robust." There is no doubt that these additional funds are much needed to purchase and distribute food to those who are suffering greatly from the current spike in food prices. But the U.S. can and should do more. Specifically, the U.S. must allow Japan to sell, at full cost on Japanese books, the 1.5 Comment »April 11, 2008The Global Food Crisis: Time for Action, Not PanicPosted by Kimberly Ann Elliott in Climate Change, Environment, Food Aid, Food Crisis, Global Warming, Migration and Labor Mobility, News, United Nations, World Bank Tags: Agriculture, Food Aid, Food Crisis, UN, World BankThe New York Times yesterday (and Paul Krugman earlier in the week) called on rich countries to “step up to the plate” in confronting the food crisis in developing countries — in the short run by increasing their donations of food aid. and in the medium run by getting rid of economically inefficient, inequitable, and environmentally unsound subsidies for biofuels, especially corn-based ethanol. Comment »December 17, 2007Improving Climate Projections and Adaptation: A Hot Research Topic in BaliPosted by Kevin Ummel in Climate Change, Environment, Global Warming, Migration and Labor Mobility Tags: AgricultureBesides the official negotiations and speeches, the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali that I’ve been attending also provided opportunities for sharing new research and ideas. Two subjects dominated the schedule: adaptation and forestry (no doubt reflecting the preferences of our Indonesian hosts). Here I briefly discuss the use of climate models in adaptation — a critical issue for those in the development community. [In a separate post to follow I'll note some new efforts in the measurement and monitoring of forest carbon.] Comment » |
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