Strengthening Agricultural Trade Strategies: Towards a Caribbean Agenda

While 75% of the world’s poor continue to depend on agriculture, most governments do too little to stimulate agricultural growth and aid to agriculture has been reduced to a fraction of what it was in the 1980s. Recently however, in particular in the context of the ‘rising food prices’ issue, awareness is growing that in developing countries agriculture has too often been overlooked as a catalyst for economic development and hence food security and poverty reduction. Globalising trade and investment are creating new opportunities, such as the development of international agricultural chains, as well as
challenges.

In the context of Caribbean-EU trade relations, agricultural commodities have traditionally played a key role, which is a pattern found also in many African and Pacific countries’ trade with Europe. While agriculture remains essential to many ACP economies - including in the Caribbean - in terms of its contribution to GDP and employment, changing market conditions and preference erosion call for new strategies. Furthermore, new bilateral trade agreements such as the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the EU require economies to adjust to trade liberalisation.