Agricultural Trade in South Countries: An overview of trends in performance, vulnerabilities, and policy frameworks

Tues, March 29, 2022 at 10-11:30 AM EST | Register 

 

At this event, FAO will launch a new report on Agricultural Trade in South Countries. An overview of trends in performance, vulnerabilities, and policy frameworks.

South-South Cooperation (SSC) is increasingly recognized as an effective instrument for catalysing economic development by fostering the exchange of innovation and good practices, and expanding market opportunities across countries with a similar level of development and shared development objectives, such as those reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Key to this economic cooperation are trade and investment relationships among South countries.

The authors of the study will share information on the agricultural trade performance of Southern Countries (SCs), and present trends in intra- and inter-regional trade, both at the level of South and North countries, as well as at the level of sub-regional country groups within South countries. After that, the discussion will focus on the challenges posed by trade. The authors will then look into the accession history of SCs to the WTO, explore their level of agricultural tariffs, present information on the fulfilment of their WTO transparency obligations, and look into how much SCs have made use of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. Finally, the authors will present major trends related to SCs’ participation in Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs).

Speakers:

Mr Cosimo Avesani is a Trade Policy expert in the Markets and Trade Division of FAO. Mr Avesani monitors agriculture trade negotiations at the multilateral and regional level, and supports FAO’s work on trade policy related issues, including on capacity development and qualitative analysis. Before joining FAO, he served as Policy Director at the Brussels Office of the Trans-Atlantic Business Council (TABC), and as Chief of Staff and Policy Advisor in the Cabinet of the Italian Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade. Mr Avesani holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Bologna and a MA in International Politics and Diplomacy from the University of Padua. His expertise lies in trade policy, trade agreements, trade and food security, multilateral trade negotiations.

Ms Ishrat K. Gadhok is an Economist in the Markets and Trade Division of FAO, where she supports the Trade team’s analytical, capacity development, and stakeholder engagement activities. Her work is focused on analysing trade policies in relation to the development of agricultural markets, food security and employment outcomes, and multilateral and regional trade negotiations. Prior to joining FAO, Ms Gadhok worked as a management consultant with KPMG in the Strategy and Operations practice. She has also worked as an economist with the Canadian Ministry of Agriculture. Ishrat holds a Masters in Food and Resource Economics, and Bachelors in Science, both from the University of British Columbia in Canada. She is currently pursuing a DPhil in Management at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Her expertise lies in global value chains, trade policy, trade agreements, trade and food security, sustainability standards.