Keith Bradsher and Andrew Martin reported in today's New York Times that, "At least 29 countries have sharply curbed food exports in recent months, to ensure that their own people have enough to eat, at affordable prices. "When it comes to rice, India, Vietnam, China and 11 other countries have limited or banned exports. Fifteen countries, including Pakistan and Bolivia, have capped or halted wheat exports. More than a dozen have limited corn exports. Kazakhstan has restricted exports of sunflower seeds.

"The restrictions are making it harder for impoverished importing countries to afford the food they need. The export limits are forcing some of the most vulnerable people, those who rely on relief agencies, to go hungry."'It's obvious that these export restrictions fuel the fire of price increases,' said Pascal Lamy, the director general of the World Trade Organization."

Bradsher and Martin explained that, "The new restrictions are just an acute symptom of a chronic condition. Since 1980, even as trade in services and in manufactured goods has tripled, adjusting for inflation, trade in food has barely increased. Instead, for decades, food has been a convoluted tangle of restrictive rules, in the form of tariffs, quotas and subsidies.

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