Security of Global Food Supply: What Role for Latin America's Net Agricultural Exporters?

Canning House and Grupo de Países Productores del Sur are pleased to host a high-level roundtable discussion of the state of global food security and Latin America’s growing role as a global food supplier. At the event we will look at:

• Global economic scenarios and the role of trade
• Issues and perspectives of agricultural trade negotiations in the next decade
• The role of food net-exporting countries in global food security

As home to several of the world’s principal exporters of coarse grains, Latin America will need to play a critical role in addressing global food insecurity. This will require considerable agricultural innovation, however, facilitated by public and private sector investment in R&D. Trade policy is also a critical factor. Around the world many harmful trade policies, such as export bans, hurt the poor and hinder efficiency of agricultural markets.

Food security will be one of the top global challenges in the coming decades. According to recent estimates, agricultural production will need to increase 50-70 percent by 2050 to meet future demand. What does this reality mean for the Western Hemisphere, which comprises many of the world’s major food producing nations? Are the world’s top agricultural exporters well positioned to scale up agricultural production and trade in the coming years? How will new trade arrangements (e.g., the Trans-Pacific Partnership) affect global food security?

At the event we will gather to discuss the dilemmas and strategies of large net food importers and present a possible agenda for addressing global food insecurity which calls for alignment, through negotiations in the WTO, of the long-term objectives of net food exporters and net food importing countries in a reliable rule-based framework.

Guest speakers:

John Llewellyn, Llewellyn Consulting    

Before co-founding Llewellyn Consulting, John Llewellyn was Global Chief Economist and then Senior Economic Policy Advisor at Lehman Brothers. This followed almost twenty years at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, where variously he was Head of International Forecasting and Policy Analysis, editor of the OECD Economic Outlook, Deputy Director for Social Affairs, Manpower and Education, and finally Chef de Cabinet to the Secretary-General. Prior to that he spent nearly ten years at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Cambridge, and he was also a Fellow of St. John’s College.

Ricardo Meléndez Ortiz, CEO, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development

Ricardo is co-founder of ICTSD and has been its Chief Executive since 1996. Previously, he co-founded and was General Director of Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano (Quito). He has represented Colombia as a negotiator in several multilateral fora, including as permanent delegate of Colombia in Geneva and as a negotiator in GATT’s Uruguay Round, the Rio’92 UN Conference process, UNCTAD VIII, the Climate Change Convention, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Montreal Protocol.

Carlos Perez del Castillo - Special Adviser on international trade to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay.

Vice-Chairman of the International Food and Agriculture Policy Council. Served as Chairman of the CGIAR Consortium of international agricultural research centers and as Chair of the WTO General Council. During his long career in public office was Vice- Minister and Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs; Ambassador to the UN and WTO and Permanent Secretary of the Latin American Economic System (SELA;). Chief Negotiator in the Uruguay and Doha Rounds ,Mercosur and Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Silvia Taurozzi, Global Advisor and former Senior Vice President, Louis Dreyfus Commodities (LDC) (chair)

The speakers will be followed by an open roundtable discussion.

The event will be followed by a light buffet lunch.

To register your interest in attending please email: [email protected]