The Global Development Program will make grants that attempt to reform multilateral trade rules that limit market access for agricultural products from developing countries and that shift domestic farm support payments in the United States to more productive and less trade-distorting uses.

Although aid is clearly necessary to help poor countries make critical investments in the short term, international trade has the potential to improve the lives of the world’s poor far beyond the possibilities realistically offered by foreign aid.  The economic growth resulting from increased trade could be a major source of revenue for poor countries to invest in poverty alleviation programs and other development efforts. 

As things stand, however, the terms of trade are firmly weighted against the interests of the developing world, particularly when it comes to agriculture.  Interventions to reduce the trade barriers facing products from developing countries could have an enormous impact in improving the lives of the 70 percent of the world’s poor who earn their income from agriculture.  In fact, if rich countries fully opened their markets to all products from developing countries, the value to those countries would be almost double that of current development assistance.

The Global Development program will support efforts to reduce some of the barriers that prevent developing country farm products from reaching world markets.  These barriers include tariffs, export subsides, and direct support payments to farmers in the United States and other industrialized countries.  

Many developing country farmers simply can’t compete in markets where prices have been artificially lowered by wealthy countries’ subsidy policies.  The Foundation will therefore invest in research and advocacy efforts to help reform both international trade policy and U.S. farm policy, with the goal of allowing small farmers in developing countries to compete fairly in the international trading system.

In the U.S. context, providing support to more productive and less trade-distorting uses could help shape discussions about the direction of U.S. farm policy.  One of the most promising sets of options involves shifting commodity subsidies to encourage the development of renewable energy uses of farmland, which would have benefits for American farmers, farmers in developing countries, and for the domestic and global environment.

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