Nepal's WTO Membership: Benefits and Challenges
Shiv Raj Bhatt |
1. Background
It is argued that economic globalisation boosts the world economy and that global integration of small and landlocked countries like Nepal through WTO membership can be instrumental for rapid economic growth, poverty reduction and promotion of human development. Trade liberalisation can affect the welfare of the people (especially poor) through a number of channels1, namely: (i) by changing the price of tradable goods (i.e., lowering prices for imports for poor consumers and producers, increasing prices of exports for poor producers), and improving access to new products; (ii) by changing the relative prices of factors of production (skilled and unskilled labour and capital) used in the production of tradable goods and affecting the income and employment of the poor; (iii) by affecting government revenue from trade taxes and thus the government's ability to finance programmes for the poor; (iv) by changing incentives for investment and innovation and affecting economic growth; and (v) by affecting the vulnerability of an economy (or subgroups within the economy) to negative external shocks that could affect the poor. However, the link between trade liberalisation and people's welfare or poverty is extremely complex and, therefore, drawing generalisations about these links is very difficult.
. Theoretically, it is argued that trade contributes to growth and better income and employment opportunities, hence positively promoting human development and poverty reduction. In a cross-sectional study (involving 100 countries) Frankel and Romer (1999), found that openness does have a statistically and economically significant effect on growth. Similarly, Jeffrey Sachs and Andrew Warner (1997) find that developing countries with open economies grow much faster than closed economies. William Cline (2003) shows that an estimated 75 million people would be lifted out of poverty in India over the long term from the dynamic productivity effects of free trade.
On the basis of such empirical studies, it may be claimed that the global integration of Nepal through WTO membership can be instrumental for rapid economic growth, poverty reduction and promotion of human development. In reality, however, the evidences and experiences of many countries do not always support this argument, especially in the case of least developed countries (LDCs) [Guru-Gharana K. K., 2001]. Moreover, a wide range of concerns have arisen throughout the world about the likely implications of the various WTO agreements on various development-related issues, particularly related to the poverty, inequality and promotion of human development. Multilateral organisations, such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), along with other stakeholders (NGOs, community organizations, government agencies, individual researchers and others), have raised various issues/concerns about the likely implications of various WTO agreements, especially for the poor.
Therefore, Nepal - a least developed country (LDC) of the world - needs to be careful to maximise the benefits of WTO membership. In this regard, Nepal, with a predominantly agricultural economy and with very poor infrastructure and scarcity of resources, needs proper policy interventions, institutions, infrastructure and the removal of supply side constraints to seize the benefits of globalisation and WTO membership not only at a macro level but also at the grassroots level.
2. World Trading System:
A Brief Historical Background2 Shortly after the Second World War, the international community realised the importance of globalisation and sought to establish an international organisation that regulates international trade. The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, held in Bretton Woods in 1944, led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)also known as the World Bank. Delegates at the conference recommended the creation of the International Trade Organisation (ITO). Unfortunately, this was never established because some nations, including the United States, strongly opposed it. Although the idea of the creation of the ITO was nixed, a liberalised global international trading system, one based on free trade, was appealing. Four years later, in March 1948 at the Havana Conference, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) came into effect and consisted of 23 nations (formally known as the 'contracting parties').
The above three institutions -- the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) -- have been the pillars of the economic system that emerged after World War II. The main purpose of the IMF was to manage the international monetary system. The World Bank was initially set up to assist the European economies, devastated by the war, to finance production projects. However, its objectives quickly broadened and development financing became its main responsibility. Initially, the GATT concentrated solely on trade in goods. Reduction of tariffs and trade barriers, promotion of the liberalisation of world trade, elimination of discriminatory treatment and an increase in competition were some of the GATT objectives. To ensure that there was no discriminatory treatment, each country had to grant most-favoured nation (MFN) treatment to other contracting parties. Over the years, through rounds of negotiations, GATT developed into a strong foundation that provided rules for international trade. 'GATT helped establish a strong and prosperous multilateral trading system that became more and more liberal through rounds of trade negotiations. But by the 1980s the system needed a thorough overhaul3.' 123 countries participated in the 8th and final round of GATT negotiations, the Uruguay Round (1986-1994), which led to the signing of the Marrakesh Agreement and the creation of the WTO.
The Marrakesh Agreement developed out of the GATT. Article II of the Marrakesh Agreement states that the WTO is established 'to provide the common institutional framework for the conduct of trade relations among its members in matters related to the agreement.' It consists of the GATT, as well as several other agreements. The issues covered in the Marrakesh Agreement include trade in services, trade-related aspects of intellectual property (TRIPS), and technical barriers to trade, among others. It also defines the functions and structure of the WTO and establishes a legal and more efficient dispute settlement process. The WTO was formally established on January 1, 1995.
2.1 WTO agreements, functions and objectives
WTO Agreements cover not only trade in goods, but trade in services and in ideas (intellectual property) as well. The 123 GATT 'contracting parties' automatically became members of WTO. Any country thereafter that wishes to join the WTO has to go through an accession process (Article XII of the Marrakesh Agreement). Currently, there are 150 member states in the organisation and 25 countries are negotiating in the hope of acceding to the WTO. Over 97 per cent of global trade takes place among WTO members.
The key functions of the WTO (Article III of the Marrakesh Agreement) are to:
facilitate the implementation, administration and operation of this agreement and any new agreements that may be implemented in the future; provide a forum for negotiations among its members concerning their multilateral trade relations;
settle disputes among its member countries; carry out periodic reviews of the national trade policies of its member countries; and cooperate with the IMF and IBRD (World Bank) with a view to achieving greater coherence in global economic policy making.
According to the Preamble of the Marrakesh Agreement, the basic objectives of the WTO are "raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing volume of real income and effective demand, and expanding the production of and trade in goods and services (while allowing for the optimal use of the world's resources in accordance with the objective of sustainable development)…by entering into reciprocal and mutually advantageous arrangements directed to the substantial reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade and to the elimination of discriminatory treatment in international trade relations.'
The following principles are the foundation of the multilateral trading system:
i. Trade without discrimination Most-favoured nation (MFN): The WTO stipulates that countries cannot discriminate against other member countries. However, there are exceptions, and they include free trade areas. ' MFN means that every time a country lowers a trade barrier or opens up a market, it has to do so for the same goods and services from all its trading partners -- whether rich or poor, weak or strong.4'
Special and Differential Treatment (S&D): However, there are special provisions that give developing and least developed countries, which make up over three quarters of WTO members, exclusive rights. For instance, they are given more time to implement WTO agreements, assistance in increasing their trade opportunities and support to help them build the infrastructure they need for WTO work. Also, the WTO provides technical assistance and training to these countries. This is all done to give them equal footing with the more industrialized and competitive member countries. National Treatment: Both imported and locally produced goods should be treated equally5.
ii. Freer trade: Lowering trade barriers will encourage trade. Examples of barriers include tariffs (or customs duties), import bans and quotas. This can be accomplished through negotiations.
iii. Predictability: In order for a trade system to be predictable, there needs to be transparency in the national government's practices, as well as in the multilateral level. Foreign companies, investors and governments should not have to fear the random and illogical increases in trade barriers. In the WTO, tariff rates and market opening/access commitments are 'bound'. In terms of goods, binding refers to ceilings on customs tariff rates. To ensure transparency, many WTO agreements require governments to publicly release their policies by notifying the WTO. Also, the Trade Policy Review Mechanism allows for regular inspection of national trade policies.
iv. Promote fair competition: The WTO discourages unfair trade practices, such as export subsidies and dumping (export of products at lower cost to gain market share). MFN and national treatment should further their goal of creating an equal playing field in the trading system.
v. Encourage development and economic reform: The WTO feels developing countries deserve more time to implement WTO agreements, thus they are more flexible with them than they are with industrialised members. Industrialised countries are encouraged to assist developing countries in their trading activities.
3. Nepal's expectations from WTO membership
To capitalise the benefits of globalisation, Nepal wishes to integrate its economy with global economy and initiated economic reforms in the mid-1980s, which was boosted after restoration of multiparty democratic system in the 1990s6. The Ninth Plan (the first plan formulated and implemented after restoration of democratic system) sets a long-term goal of integrating the trade sector into the globalisation process by making it fully competitive and market oriented, and aims to achieve one per cent share in the global trade by 2015. The Plan identified accession to the WTO and development of requisite infrastructures to maximize the benefits of WTO membership as one of its major strategies [NPC, 1998].
Nepal had applied for accession to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1989. However, the accession process in the GATT could not move forward to its logical conclusion. After the establishment of WTO on 1 January 1995, Nepal applied for accession to it. After arduous negotiations for about 6 years, Nepal became the 147th member of WTO on 23 April 2004.
Nepal acceded to the WTO with the firm belief that membership in the rule-based trading regime is essential for expanding trade opportunities, facilitating competition and absorbing knowledge, thereby creating opportunities for growth and pursuing overall development goals. On the basis of past experience it can be claimed that WTO membership may help to expand trade by providing predictability, security
transparency of market access, but it does not necessarily guarantee immediate or longer-term economic and human development. Benefits of the membership are not automatic; various efforts are needed to seize the opportunities created by WTO membership and if the stakeholders (basically the government, and private sector) do not work pro-actively and undertake proper and necessary actions timely, Nepal has only to lose in the WTO era.
4. Implications of Nepal's Membership
Nepal, being a small land-locked economy sandwiched between two large and fastest growing economies of the world -- China and India -- has no choice other than externalising its economy through WTO membership in order to achieve the desired pace of growth and development. For a small economy like Nepal it is very difficult to achieve its economic goals while remaining isolated from the global rules of trade, especially in present situation when more than 90 percent of the global trade is governed by the trade rules under the framework of WTO provision. Moreover, Nepal cannot resist the negative spillover effect without getting into WTO in the context when India and China both are members of WTO.
However, the cost and challenges of WTO membership are also remarkable. The implications of WTO membership depends on various factors such as internal and external institutions and social and economic policy preconditions that largely determine to what extent the country and the people benefit from WTO membership. Nepal needs prudent economic policies, removal of supply side constraints, increased institutional capacity and infrastructure development to maximise the benefits while mitigating the adverse effects. Therefore, it can be said that the implications of membership are not pre-determined and unique. However, on the basis of past experiences, the following can be considered as the benefits and challenges for Nepal in the post-WTO membership period.
4.1 Benefits of WTO membership
WTO membership established Nepal as an independent economic entity competent to trade under the global framework of rules. It is indeed a national pride for all the Nepalese. As argued by Pandey (1999), WTO membership would help to lock in the ongoing liberalisation process and increase the credibility of initial reform; provide substantial improvements in market access over the existing bilateral and multilateral preferences accorded to Nepal; secure transit rights; and provide a stronger, faster, impartial, and a binding mechanism for dispute settlement. In addition, it is argued that the membership would dismantle the cost of non-membership; and ensure greater stability in economic and trade policy. The benefits of membership can be outlined as follows:
4.1.1 Market access opportunities
Market access opportunities provided by the WTO system can lead to further investment addressing the constraint of limited domestic market for economic scale of productive operation, which will also help to raise investment, economic production of goods and services and industrialisation process. The membership has also secured extended market opportunities in member countries without discrimination for Nepal's exports. Many factors determine volume, composition and growth of trade (export) and WTO membership can be only one among them; and moreover, only two years are not enough to judge the performance, but some kind of symptoms should be there that show the progress. The experience and performance of the past two years, however, does not show any kind of remarkable achievement in this regard. This clearly indicates that, unless the supply side constraints are managed properly, Nepal cannot benefit from increased market access opportunities.
4.1.2 Policy stability
The WTO regime provides opportunity for policy stability internally which is of utmost urgency in the context of the existing political instability in order to provide an environment of predictability for investment and industrialisation. National policy decisions are locked to the framework of WTO provisions, which enhance the credibility of the country in terms of economic governance
4.1.3 Attract foreign direct investment
Policy stability due to WTO membership provides credibility to the nation in terms of economic activities with predictable environment. Such environment is essential to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and technology to expedite industrialisation process in Nepal. Additionally, the mandatory provision of WTO in protecting intellectual property rights creates a better situation for attracting investment. However, apart from policy stability, foreign investors need some more pre-conditions; most importantly, the size of market, infrastructure, security of private property, peace and condition of law and order in the country. Unfortunately, most of these pre-conditions are absent at present in Nepal; therefore, it would not be appropriate to blame WTO membership for not boosting FDI flows and for making Nepal a less attractive destination for investors even after the membership.
4.1.4 Gearing up domestic institutional capability
Joining WTO reflects national commitment in gearing up domestic institutional capability in delivering services related to trade and economic transactions. Similarly, the challenge to business community in enhancing their competitive capability certainly builds pressure to look at their own existing lapses and inefficiency, paving the way for the effective actions to correct them. Therefore, WTO membership can be an effective excuse in domestic constituency and private corporate culture to adopt and enforce reform measures with drastic changes departing from traditional and status quo oriented approach.
4.1.5 Benefits of positive discrimination
Nepal, a least developed country (LDC), can benefit from the WTO mechanism of positive discriminations. Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) provisions of WTO, though considered best endeavor clauses without strength as in binding clauses, provide comfort from abiding tough obligations, and longer transition period for necessary policy and institutional adjustment. Orientation of WTO system towards development dimension of trade can prove beneficial to have trade-led growth in the context of increasing opportunities from the process of globalisation. Growth in trade linking to address poverty is of utmost concern to countries like Nepal. The strategic approach of backward and forward linkage in actions to develop trade is the added advantage to weaker economies, which is expected to derive from multilateral rules of global trade, after the Doha Declaration.
4.1.6 Establishment of trade and transit rights
Establishment of trade rights of the WTO members saves them from the consequences of unilateral decisions between trading partners. Trade rights are institutionalised by WTO framework. The dispute settlement body of WTO has demonstrated courageous decisions in favour of weaker and smaller trading partners against stronger members. Nepal, as a landlocked country, has to get institutionalised recognition for access to sea. Article V of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which constitute mandatory provisions to all member countries of WTO, deals with freedom of transit. It is clearly stated that, 'there shall be freedom of transit through the territory of each contracting party, via the routes most convenient for international transit, for traffic in transit to or from the territory of other contracting parties.' It is further stated in this Article that, ' no distinction shall be made based on the flag of vessel, the place of origin, departure, entry, exit or destination, or any circumstances relating to the ownership of goods, of vessels or other means of transport, and traffic shall not be subject to any unnecessary delays or restriction.'
4.1.7 Removal of supply side constraints
As the Nepalese economy is import dependent due to limitation on its resource endowment, consistency and predictability in supply is of paramount concern. Being a member of WTO, alternative trading partners among the members, without discrimination in terms of trade, extend additional assurance of supply consistency required both for industrial input and domestic consumption.
4.1.8 Implications for SMEs7
Membership to a rule based multilateral organisation like WTO has opened many economic opportunities as well as challenges for Nepal's entrepreneurs/enterprises, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The membership may help to expand business activities by expanding market access opportunities and by providing predictability, security, transparency and stability in economic policies at national level and globally. But in a predominantly agricultural economy like Nepal, with poor infrastructure, resource scarcity, and very underdeveloped industrial base that depend on traditional methods of production; the said benefits are doubtful to achieve. Nepal's commitment to further liberalize its trade regime and adopt WTO compatible policies and legislation is likely to produce winners and losers in industrial sector, particularly within the SMEs sector. Many WTO agreements have significant importance for Nepal's SMEs, which may affect the SMEs both positively and negatively. Therefore, likely implications of various WTO agreements should be analyzed and assessed cautiously. Status of SMEs in Nepal
Industrial Policy 1997 (amended) has defined small industries as industries having fixed assets not exceeding Rs 30 million and medium industries having fixed assets between 30 million and Rs. 100 million. The overall status of SMEs, including investment and contribution to the economy is not well documented, but it comprises most of the country's economic activities. As stated in the Tenth Plan, more than 90 per cent of the industries fall under small and cottage industry (cottage and small scale) categories and these industries have contributed over 70 per cent of employment in industrial sector, and 50 per cent in value addition. The plan recognised the huge potential of SMEs as an important means for poverty reduction, and sets an objective to increase the income and purchasing power of the rural people through employment generation in the micro, cottage and small industries. Accordingly, the plan adopted strategies to give special attention in sustainable development of infrastructure, entrepreneurship and skills to develop micro, cottage and small industries based on local-agro forest resources.
Table 1 clearly shows that the golden age for SMEs starts with the restoration of multiparty democratic system in Nepal in 1990. The number of SMEs registered increased more than five times in year 1991/92 than the previous year. The growth continued almost for one decade, albeit with some ups and downs. Number of SMEs registered, fixed capital investment and loan disbursed by the banks all reached the highest point in year 1999/2000. The growth of SMEs, however, decreased continuously after 2000/01, showing that the ongoing conflict also affected the SME sector.
Implications of WTO membership WTO is an international organisation that deals with the rules of the trade between its 150 members. WTO rules embodied in its various agreements provide the basic framework for international trade. WTO Agreements cover not only trade in goods, but trade in services and in ideas (intellectual property) as well. The goal of WTO, among others, is to help enterprises, including SMEs, to conduct their business in a rule-based trading environment. However, WTO does not provide direct assistance to SMEs.
Nepal's WTO membership may affect SMEs as a producer or an exporter and importer of goods and services. Most importantly, various WTO rules and decisions involving obligations relating to reduction of tariffs, cutting of major subsidies incompatible with WTO rules, trade related intellectual property rights, technical standards and large-scale liberalisation of services/infrastructure can affect SMEs8.
In this context, it can be said that the WTO agreements, by creating a rules-based trading system, confer advantages to all enterprises (including SMEs) involved in international trade in WTO member countries. However, WTO rules do not differentiate between enterprises according to their size. They provide a level playing field for all participants in international trade9.
The majority of industrial enterprises operating in Nepal, belonging to the small scale category may not be in a position to market their products internationally. With assured policy commitment of opening of our economy inherent due to WTO membership, interest of multinational and transnational companies can be drawn towards Nepal, which ultimately provides linkage to smaller and medium sized Nepalese entrepreneurs. Productive capacity of such smaller entrepreneurs will be complemented by the marketing strength of multinationals. Similarly, SMEs can base their demand on WTO provisions for domestic mechanism of protection. Subsidy provisions for small and medium scale entrepreneurs can be managed for research, or due to the location of disadvantaged regions, or to adapt new environment. Similarly trade remedy measures can be activated for protection from import injuries10.
The WTO membership has also imposed many challenges to SMEs. First, WTO's import liberalisation measures, including gradual tariff reduction and prohibition of quantitative restriction on imports, may increase competition for SMEs. They may also be deprived of conventional subsidies and differential treatments that are not compatible with WTO rules. Similarly, some WTO agreements, particularly Sanitary and Phytosanitory (SPS) Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) may bring additional challenges for Nepalese SMEs. SMEs, due to their un-standardised products, may face quality/standard gap because of WTO's standard and quality related agreements (SPS and TBT). Such standard and quality related aspect may limit market access opportunities for SMEs. Adapting standards will imply additional costs and rise in operational expenditure. Therefore, export risk will increase for SME's, especially in products from regions subject to higher standards of SPS measures. Similarly, SMEs are expected to incur high cost as a result of TRIPS Agreement due to royalty payments related to intellectual property (copyrights and related rights, trademarks, industrial designs, patents, layout designs of integrated circuits etc).
In this context, the most important issues that may pressurize SMEs of Nepal after WTO membership can be greater competition, challenges to fulfill quality and technical standard, and royalty payments to the owners of intellectual property.
4.1.9 Benefits of service trade liberalisation
Competitiveness of producers in an economy largely depends on access to efficient banking, insurance, accountancy, legal, telecommunications, transport systems and other services. Services are an integral part of other economic activities; therefore the benefits of services liberalisation do not just accrue to the service industries but to other economic activities as well. Many empirical studies assessed possible benefits of service liberalisation and more importantly, it is found that developing countries stand to gain relatively more than industrial countries for liberalising their services trade.
Recognising the growing importance of services and the various constraints impeding the globalisation of this sector, the Uruguay Round broadened the scope of multilateral trade negotiations to include services for the first time in the history of trade negotiations. Under Uruguay Round a Group on Negotiations for Services was established, with the aim to promote orderly and transparent trade and investment liberalisation in services. General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is the final result of negotiations under Uruguay Round.
4.2 Costs and challenges ahead
The membership however, is not free from cost and challenges. Viewing the existing level of development, infrastructure, human resource availability, competitiveness of private sector and supply side constraints, a few Nepalese are pessimistic about the results of membership. The recent anti-globalisation critics argued that it may hurt Nepal's poor by increasing poverty and inequality. They also attack its negative impact on public health, basically through the TRIPS agreement that may significantly affect access to medicine12, nutrition and food security13.
The main challenges before Nepal are to fulfill WTO commitments that need strengthening of existing institutions and legal mechanism or establishment of new institutional/legal mechanism; removal of supply side constraints to transform available market access into trade opportunities; restructuring of industrial sector to make it more competent and contemporary; and averting marginalisation of the country as well as weaker sections of the society.
In total, the benefits of membership depends on Nepal's ability to identify and take advantage of trading opportunities; fulfill multilateral trade obligations; formulate and pursue development strategies within the framework of those obligations; and above all, defend her economic, finance and trade needs [Pandey, 1999].
5. Conclusion
The membership has opened tremendous economic opportunities and established global recognition of Nepal as an independent economic entity competent to trade under the global framework of rules. However, it also poses many challenges for Nepal. To realise intended benefit from WTO membership Nepal needs strategic alliance among the domestic stakeholders as well as with external trading partners to enhance competitive capability of business community and service delivery capability of public agencies related to investment, production and trade.
(Shiv Raj Bhatt is Programme Officer at UNDP Nepal)
End Notes
1. Adapted from Bannister Geffery J. and Thugge Kamau (2001), International Trade and Poverty Alleviation, IMF Working Paper (WP/01/54), International Monetary Fund.
2. Most of the information in this section comes from Understanding The WTO, 2003 and the ' Marrakesh Agreement' from WTO Legal Texts website, http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/legal_e.htm
3. Quoted from Understanding The WTO, 2003. (p.15).
4. Quoted from Understanding The WTO, 2003. (p.11). 5. Look at the following agreements for more information: Article 3 of GATT, Article 17 of GATS and Article 3 of TRIPS.
(Shiv Raj Bhatt is Programme Officer at UNDP Nepal)
End Notes
1. Adapted from Bannister Geffery J. and Thugge Kamau (2001), International Trade and Poverty Alleviation, IMF Working Paper (WP/01/54), International Monetary Fund.
2. Most of the information in this section comes from Understanding The WTO, 2003 and the ' Marrakesh Agreement' from WTO Legal Texts website, http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/legal_e.htm
3. Quoted from Understanding The WTO, 2003. (p.15).
4. Quoted from Understanding The WTO, 2003. (p.11).
5. Look at the following agreements for more information: Article 3 of GATT, Article 17 of GATS and Article 3 of TRIPS.
6. A new Commerce Policy aimed at transforming the trade sector to make it open, competitive and market oriented was formulated and implemented during the Eighth Plan of Nepal (1987-1992).
7. This section is heavily drawn from, Bhatt Shiv Raj, 'WTO and SME's in Nepal' an article published in the New Business Age, a monthly magazine published from Katmandu, March 2006.
8. For details see, International Trade Rules: An answer book on the WTO Agreements for small and medium-sized exporters, ITC UNCTAD/WTO, 2001
9. ibid
10. For more details, see Shrestha, Prachanda Man, 'Multilateral Trading Regime: Implications on the Nepalese SMEs' in Dahal Navin and Sharma Bhaskar (ed) 2004.
11. For details see Bhatt, September, October and December 2005.
12. Several studies have estimated that after implementation of TRIPS agreement the prices of drugs will increases in the range of 12 per cent to 68 per cent in developing countries [Fink, 2000; Watal, 2000; Lanjouw, 1997; and Subramanian, 1995 as quoted in UNDP, 2003].
13. It is argued that the TRIPS agreement can affect the nutritional aspects through its negative impact on farmers' rights (by reducing farmers' access to basic agricultural inputs, basically seeds) in developing and underdeveloped countries [See, Adhikari, Ratnakar (ed.), Food Security in the Global Age: South Asian Dilemma, SAWTEE Kathmandu, Pro Public, Kathmandu, and CI-ROAP, Kuala Lumpur, 2001]. However, a flexible trade policy may also help in long-term food security [Dorosh, Paul A, Trade, Food Aid and Food Security: Evolving Rice and Wheat Markets, Economic and Political Weekly, September 4, 2004].
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