Trade and Markets

Among the losers of global trade - and its ongoing liberalisation - are low-income countries, and the poor in the countryside. Small and traditional rural livelihoods are being confronted with unfair competition from large, world market oriented agricultural companies. The terms of international agricultural trade, which dictate this competition, emerged in the colonial era of the 19th century. Today they are regulated by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and a large number of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. Their declared objective is to increase and liberalise international trade through the elimination of tariffs and trade restrictions. The conditions of global agricultural trade would have to be radically changed if the aim of providing basic food for everyone through sustainable production is to be achieved . 

http://www.globalagriculture.org/report-topics/trade-and-markets/trade-and-markets.html