As part of the promotion of global trade and economic liberalization, there has been a powerful trend toward regional economic integration. This has been particularly the case in the Asia-Pacific region. Nine member economies of the APEC Forum are actively promoting “Trans-Pacific Partnership” (TPP) agreements and “ASEAN+3” has taken shape. These circumstances suggest development toward a “Free Trade Area Asia-Pacific” (FTAAP). Moreover, the Doha Round of negotiations under the WTO, assuming that all the parties can achieve consensus, could yield concrete results. Therefore, all countries must accept that a key issue for the future will be how to sustainably develop agriculture in the context of trade and economic liberalization.

In addition, as developing countries have grown rapidly and population has continued to climb, there has been a sharp increase in global demand for food. On the other hand, the supply of food has been in a state of uncertainty, for reasons that include global climate change and competition for farmland from crops grown for energy applications. Food security has, as a result, become an issue of major importance for many countries in recent years. It is by no means impossible that there will be sharply higher food prices in the future. Measures that countries can take to enhance confidence in food security include (a) increasing stockpiles of staple foods and (b) agreeing on mechanisms for mutual assistance in this area.