Impacts of Regional Trade Agreements(RTAs) on Food Security: A Case of ASEAN Free Trade Agreement

TL;DR

This paper examines how the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement has positively impacted food security in member countries by increasing per-capita dietary energy supply through trade liberalization.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the positive effects of AFTA on food security using panel data regression analysis.

Findings

AFTA has improved food security in member countries.

Per-capita dietary energy supply increased after AFTA formation.

Trade liberalization contributed to food security enhancement.

Abstract

Discriminatory trade liberalization policies are becoming more popular among world economies. Countries are motivated to enter for regional trade agreements to capture faster economic growth for alleviating poverty. In developing economies like most of the member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), a sizeable portion of people are suffering from poverty by exposing them to food insecurity. Low level of income and low productivity of agricultural sector have augmented the severity of food insecurity of those people. Discriminatory trade liberalization policies are expected to reduce poverty and strengthen the food security. The objective of this paper is to examine the effect of ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) on food security of its member countries. The multiple regression analysis in panel data was employed to disentangle the impacts of trade liberalization on food securit y with use of regional trade agreement dummy variable. The finding of the study supports that AFTA has influenced positively on food security of its member nations. After the formation of AFTA, the level of per-capita daily dietary energy supply of the member countries has been increased moderately over time.