FAO Press Conference

This year's SOCO analyzes and offers advice on global food trade patterns and how they can best be governed. What impact will the expected increase in global commerce in farm products have on food security? Do emerging patterns, such as the growing importance of South-South trade, change the terms of international trade and require new rules? Is the issue of free trade versus protection really as simple as often depicted, or are associated policies reflections of underlying levels of development, including access to credit, markets and risk-management tools? The SOCO report explores those questions and offers pragmatic approaches to trade governance, allowing better integration of food security and other development objectives into national policies while at the same time ensuring that trading partners are not detrimentally affected. The report will be available online from 11:00 at http://www.fao.org/publications/soco/en/ Daniel Gustafson, FAO Deputy Director-General Xiaozhun Yi, World Trade Organization Deputy Director-General Maria Laura da Rocha, Permanent Representative of Brazil to FAO and Chairperson, Committee on Commodity Problems Jomo Kwame Sundaram, FAO Assistant Director-General