Trade ministers gathering in Accra, Ghana for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) should take steps to support agriculture and manage supplies to address price volatility, according to a new paper by IATP.

"A Time of High Prices: An Opportunity for the Rural Poor?", written by IATP's Trade Information Project Officer Anne Laure Constantin, is being release in Accra today and available at  www.iatp.org. The paper finds that governments have limited ability to help farmers take advantage of higher prices - due to free trade economics pushed by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. Trade liberalization has encouraged the dismantling of agriculture programs, making it difficult for developing countries to ramp up production and manage supplies to stabilize prices.