Although the current round of international trade negotiations was called aDevelopment Round very little was accomplished before the negotiationsstalled in mid2... » 

Although the current round of international trade negotiations was called aDevelopment Round very little was accomplished before the negotiationsstalled in mid2006. Developing countries as a group stand to gain verysubstantially from trade reform in agricultural commodities. It is less clearhow the 50 countries identified by the United Nations as the Least DevelopedCountries LDCs which have been subject to special consideration ininternational trade negotiations would fare. Would they lose theirpreferential trade access to the OECD markets and if so would these lossesexceed the potential gains from liberalized trade? Or would lowincomecountries that currently receive high prices for commodities such as sugar insome OECDcountry markets be outcompeted by countries such as Brazil in aliberalized market? More generally would any benefits from liberalizedagricultural trade be captured by middleincome countries with good domesticinfrastructure and wellfunctioning markets leaving few or no economicbenefits to the LDCs? How should the LDCs prepare for multilateral reform ofagricultural trade and should they take policy action now in response to thecontinuation of the tradedistorting agricultural policies pursued by the OECDcountries? To what extent do the LDCs and the middleincome developingcountries have common interests with respect to the desired outcomes of thetrade round? Are the LDCs well represented by the Group of 21 which consistsprimarily of middleincome countries with strong export potential inagriculture or should they pursue a different set of goals in futurenegotiations? In this book several experts on international trade anddevelopment address these and related questions. «