1.1 Globalization.................................................................................................................................................................. 3 1.2 The WTO Trade Liberalisation Process.................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Economic Integration Processes................................................................................................................................ 6 1.4 Multilateral Environmental and Social Initiatives.................................................................................................. 10 1.5 Hemispheric Initiatives on Agriculture.................................................................................................................... 11

2.1 Safety-driven Food and Agriculture Regulations................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Genetically Modified Organisms.............................................................................................................................. 13 2.3 Agriculture Production and Biotechnology............................................................................................................ 13 2.4 Food Demand and Nutrition.................................................................................................................................... 14 2.5 Food Marketing and Distribution............................................................................................................................. 15

3.1 Profiling Agriculture in the Caribbean..................................................................................................................... 17 3.2 Performance of Agriculture....................................................................................................................................... 21 3.7 Food Security................................................................................................................................................................31 3.8 Rural Poverty................................................................................................................................................................31 3.9 Environmental Sustainability.....................................................................................................................................31

4.3 World Food Demand.................................................................................................................................................. 33 4.5 Emerging World Players............................................................................................................................................. 33 4.6 World Food Trade....................................................................................................................................................... 34 4.7 Outlook \u2013Food Products........................................................................................................................................... 34 4.8 Outlook: Non-Food Products................................................................................................................................... 35 4.9 Outlook for Rural Life................................................................................................................................................ 35

5.1 Institutional Realignment - Getting the Framework Right!................................................................................. 37 5.2 Product/Market Repositioning.................................................................................................................................37 5.3 Food Security................................................................................................................................................................ 38 5.4 Rural Life.......................................................................................................................................................................39

6.1 Common and Shared Vision..................................................................................................................................... 39 6.2 Enabling Domestic Policy.......................................................................................................................................... 39 6.3 Legal Requirements..................................................................................................................................................... 40 6.4 Infrastructure................................................................................................................................................................40 6.5 Institutional Alignment...............................................................................................................................................41 Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................................ 41

The capacity of private firms to compete in the global economy and the ability of governments to equitably manage the integration process are increasingly critical, self-reinforcing factors in the well- being of developing countries\u2019, communities and individuals. The following highlights the most critical developments in the international system as they will influence the nature, pace and quality of food and agriculture development in particular.

The integration of markets and economies, referred to as globalization, is being driven by technological advances in communications and transportation and liberalization of trade in goods and services, and capital and investment markets. Advances in former, in particular, have revolutionized the way in which societies interact, firms conduct business and compete in international markets, and nations set their economic and human development agendas. Globalization has facilitated the rapid spread of the impact of changes due to economic deregulation, privatization and open markets, making their macroeconomic balance more vulnerable and unstable. The financial crisis of the last decade and the impact of the US Economic recession on developing countries, are very tangible examples of same. The Endowment for International Peace (2004), concluded that \u2018despite all its travails and protests, the world will become more and not less integrated, with growth in ICT among the most powerful accelerators of global integration, fuelling ever-faster international transfers of information, ideas, capital, skills and new technologies\u2019.

Rapid global integration has exposed the weaknesses of developing countries\u2019 domestic economic structures and systems, exacerbating their vulnerability to external shocks and their challenges in sustaining macroeconomic stability. In the last decade, the impact of globalization on the small developing Caribbean economies were manifest in the aggressive penetration of their markets by large multinational corporations, the erosion of the competitive edge which these countries had painstakingly carved out in services, notably tourism and financial services and the exposure of long-standing vulnerabilities of the agricultural export industries from the pressures to open-up protected markets.

Developing country agriculture, in particular, has been described as a casualty of globalization, and its decline has generally been associated with rising poverty, hunger and environmental degradation. Indeed, reports on the performance of contemporary agriculture are replete with phrases, such as, \u2018agriculture is in crisis!\u2019 This is so for countries and regions in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The adverse impacts have given rise to a crescendo of charges that \u2018uncontained\u2019 globalization has marginalized developing countries, generally, and specifically their agricultural sectors, from any gains that could accrue from the closer integration of economies and markets. As globalization advances, marginalized developing countries and sector will likely remain on the margins of an increasingly prosperous global economy. With the growing problems of inequality together and greater pressure applied by an organized globally networked civil society, the attention of the international community will increasingly be focused on developing mechanisms and policies aimed at moderating the adverse effects of globalization on the most vulnerable developing and least developed countries and sectors.

Trade liberalization, the opening-up of national borders to greater international economic transactions, has been at the core of development strategies followed by countries in order to adjust to, facilitate and manage global market integration. The global market and economy is increasingly characterized by a widening scope of trade regulations and agreements that have, since the mid-1990s, included products from the food and agriculture sector.