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Responding to the Food Crisis: The G8 Summit and the Upcoming WTO Ministerial

Jul 15, 2008

The leaders of the G8 countries recently met in Hokkaido, Japan to discuss what more needs to be done to address the food price crisis and the 100 million people threatened with increasing hunger and poverty. Later in the month, trade ministers will congregate in Geneva to try and achieve a breakthrough in the Doha Round of trade negotiations. While a Doha agreement on agriculture would have little impact on today's crisis, it would remove trade-distorting policies in rich countries that have discouraged increased production in developing countries in the past. It also aims to reform food aid to make it more responsive in emergencies and more supportive of local markets.

On July 15th, CGD hosted a roundtable to discuss these issues and what the U.S. Government is doing to address the food crisis and to ensure that the Doha Round is successfully concluded. The event featured William E. Craft, Jr., Director of the Office of Multilateral Trade Affairs, Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs, U.S. Department of State. Gawain Kripke, Policy Director, Oxfam America and Vijaya Ramachandran, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development provided remarks. The discussion was moderated by Kimberly Elliott, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development.

Kim Elliott and Bill Craft