| dc.description.abstracteng | Sustainable food production, responsible consumption, poverty reduction, and decent living
standards are important global objectives reflected in the United Nations’ Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). In achieving these goals, agricultural trade plays a major role.
Research has shown that benefits from trade liberalization include poverty alleviation,
decreasing food prices due to production advantages and competition, and an increased
variety of and access to food products. In the light of continuing poverty and food insecurity
in low- and middle-income countries, imports and exports are crucial as they offer income
gains for producers and improved access to affordable and nutritious foods for consumers.
Trade bans or protectionist policies on the other hand can lead to income losses and higher
food prices. However, not all population segments necessarily benefit from trade. A large
share of the population in developing countries relies on agricultural production for their
income, meaning that they may potentially benefit from higher food prices associated with
trade restrictions. Results in the existing literature on the overall impact of agricultural trade
on low- and middle-income countries are predominantly positive, but the existing trade-offs
between liberalization and protectionism and the important distributional effects in different
population segments are not yet sufficiently brought into the equation.
This dissertation contributes to the literature by examining the links between international
agricultural trade, local food production, household consumption, and living standards using
three case studies in West Africa. The dissertation addresses gaps in the literature regarding
measures to improve the conditions of trade, as well as consequences of market-distorting
trade barriers on production, consumption, and welfare in developing countries.
The results of the three essays illustrate the opposing effects of trade on producers and
consumers in West Africa and also emphasize how diverse the effects are for different
income groups. Essays two and three show that imported food products are relevant for
consumption in Ghana, especially among the poor. In both sectors, domestic net producers
are affected adversely by cheap imports, confirming the trade-off described in the public
discourse. However, the results imply that simply reducing imports would not improve the
overall situation, as the majority of households are net consumers. Other support measures
for producers would make more sense economically and socially. One such measure for
export-oriented producers could be sustainability standards like the Fairtrade certification
scheme. It tries to improve the conditions of trade for low- and middle-income countries,
strengthen producers through networks and higher market prices, and improve farmers’
living standards by enabling participation in lucrative export markets. As chapter one shows,
Fairtrade succeeds in several of those aspects. Other measures that also address production
for the domestic market could be technical or infrastructure support.
This dissertation concludes that agricultural trade is important in providing access to food
and securing availability of sufficient nutrients in food-insecure contexts. To offset adverse
effects of trade and support producers in being competitive, a fair setting that respects social
and environmental issues is crucial and sustainability standards can help create such a
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