2nd MENA Trade Workshop

Tunisia - 17 February 2018

During the last food crisis (2007/2008 and 2010/2011), global food prices spiked in unprecedented way and world food markets were disrupted in such a way that many countries, scholars, and development institutions questioned the reliance on trade and world markets to solve food security issues. The role of WTO and trade disciplines in the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) were considered not flexible enough to allow countries to pursue national policies designed to stabilize food prices and insure food security. In view of the above, the chair will organize a two-day workshop to discuss the linkage between trade, WTO and food security as well as other trade-related and food security issues. The workshop will feature an expert from the WTO secretariat who will deliver a keynote paper from the WTO standpoint and a scholar from the University of London, Dr Jane Harrigan who published a recent book on Arab food sovereignty. The Workshop will be an opportunity for interested academicians and practitioners from the region to present their findings and discuss food security in light of the challenges presented by limiting natural resources and international market instability. We particularly encourage submissions that highlight the following topics: 1. Food security and the WTO DDA agenda 2. Food security and trade policies 3. Strategic food reserves 4. Supply chain and food import management (wheat and staple commodities) 5. Food security and climate change 6. Managing food import risks (i.e future and options) 7. Regional food intra-trade 8. Others related issues. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Houcine Boughanmi (chair) Sabra Al Rujaibi Elibel Covarrubias Mohamed Al Rawahi Amani Al Alawi Ahmed Shammakhi Slim Zekri Hemesiri Kotagama Omar Al Jabri SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE Houcine Boughanmi, WTO chair, Oman Msafiri Mbaga, Associate Professor, SQU Mustapha Saadni-Jallab, Institute of Training and Technical Cooperation, WTO Alessandro Antimiani, Italian Agricultural Economics Institute , Tome Italy

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