Many in the development research and advocacy communities engaged heavily in the mid-2000s debate over what became the 2008 farm bill and were sorely disappointed with the outcome. At that time, the push for farm bill reform was part of a broader campaign to push the Doha Development Agenda round...

The good news for billions of consumers in Asia is that panic has not (yet) hit rice markets. Stocks are higher than in 2008 and no government has restricted rice exports, so rice prices actually dipped a bit in January and are well below 2008 levels.

The bad news for...

The decision by Russia to respond to scorching heat and wildfires by restricting wheat exports is threatening to trigger a panic similar to what sent food prices soaring in the first half of 2008. Commodity experts argue that supplies are sufficient to meet needs, thanks to bumper crops...

The New York Times yesterday published an editorial titled "Waiting for a Trade Policy," which noted that presidential backing for a single bilateral trade agreement does not a policy make:

"South Korea is an important ally in a dangerous neighborhood, and the White House should push hard to get...

Nearly four months after the earthquake that devastated Haiti, and after receiving a letter from former Presidents William Clinton and George W. Bush, the U.S. Congress seems prepared to expand access for Haitian apparel exports with the Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP) Act. This is important because apparel is one...

Trade deserves some credit for the small but significant improvements to Haiti's economy before the earthquake. U.S. efforts to help Haitians recover from the disaster should include further improvements in our trade preferences program to promote job growth and better working conditions in Haiti.

The day before the devastating earthquake...

I was going to blog about the illogic of the proposed amendment to health care legislation allowing the importation of lower-priced drugs from Canada, but Ezra Klein of the Washington Post beat me to it. As he notes, referring to floor comments by Senator David Vitter (R-LA):

"The case...

I write about trade so I feel that I should say something about the trade ministers' meeting that concluded yesterday in Geneva. But what is there to say, especially if I want to follow my mother's advice about not saying anything if I can't say something nice? There have been...

Adam Thomson, in today's Financial Times, writes of the coup in Honduras as an echo of 1980s violence in Central America. But, in fact, the past is not as distant as much of the coverage of the coup suggests and the seemingly forgotten autogolpe, or "self coup" in Guatemala...

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...