Only days ahead of a make-or-break meeting seeking agreement on liberalizing agricultural trade, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today warned that urgent complementary policies and investments are essential to ensure that the benefits of trade reform reach the poor.

With a reduction in the price of sugar threatening the economies of sugar-producing small island developing states (SIDS), their senior government officials have called on the sixth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference, meeting in Hong Kong next month, to pay greater attention to the “special needs and specificities of small states.”

Environmentally-insensitive trade liberalization can lead to economically costly soil degradation, water pollution, loss of biodiversity and destruction of forests, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) warned today.

Marking the release of new trade surveys and the opening of an international trade conference, the new director of the United Nations trade agency has urged action in a range of areas to help developing countries make permanent gains from rising commodity prices and the increase of international commerce.