Freer farm trade would bring overall benefits to developed and developing countries but the world's poorest states would suffer unless they are helped to adapt, a United Nations report said today.
The study, from the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), also asserted that developing countries would gain much more from reforming their own trade policies than from an end to farm subsidies by rich powers.
"Agricultural trade and further trade liberalisation can unlock the potential of the agriculture sector to promote pro-poor growth, but these benefits are not guaranteed," the FAO declared.
"Complementary policies and investments are urgently needed to ensure that the benefits of trade reform reach the poor," the UN agency said.
Without these, net-food-importing developing countries (NFIDCs) with already precarious trade balances and countries whose agricultural exports have had preferential access to markets of some rich nations could be badly hit.
The report was issued on the eve of a ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Hong Kong, called to discuss the current state of the Doha Round of negotiations on a new global trade treaty.
Agricultural trade is a major focus of the Round, launched in 2001 and officially dubbed a "Development Agenda", and developed and developing countries remain far apart on how it can be reformed to ensure tha all emerge as winners.