Hungry for trade : how the poor pay for free trade

As the fallout from the Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) continues, John Madeley explores some key questions about the free trade that it advocates: will free trade in food help or hinder the abolition of world hunger?; who benefits first? the poor? or the transnational corporations?; will free trade help Third World farmers find new international markets?; or will the flood of cheap, subsidized food from the North eliminate them?; how can countries - North and South, rich and poor - protect their farmers?; and how can self-sufficiency in food production be achieved?

John Madeley shows that the food imports of many developing countries are rising sharply while their food exports to the industrial countries are not.

He exposes the contradictions between Western governments' rhetoric about reducing world poverty and the drive to yet more trade liberalization.