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Philippines Seeks Asian Summit on Food Crisis, Trade 

By Jake Lloyd-Smith and En-Lai Yeoh

April 14 (Bloomberg) -- The Philippines, the world's largest rice importer, is urging China, Japan and other Asian nations to attend an emergency meeting on the region's food crisis to try and reverse export curbs that have driven prices to a record.

``Free trade should be flowing,'' Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said today in a telephone interview. ``We'd like to take up also the export bans being imposed by several countries.'' The meeting may be arranged within two months.

Grain prices including rice, the staple food for half the world, have surged this year on concern there's a shortage in the international market, prompting some growers to impose export curbs. The higher prices are stoking unrest and fanning inflation, finance ministers at the International Monetary Fund-World Bank's weekend meetings said April 12 and yesterday.

``The governments are getting a little afraid of unrest, they certainly are talking about the problem,'' David Cohen, director of Asian economic forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore, said by phone. ``There's a lot of fear and greed out there.''