Presented by Lee Ann Jackson, Counsellor, Agriculture and Commodities Division, World Trade Organization (WTO), at the Geneva Launch of IFPRI's 2016 Global Food Policy Report, April 12, 2016. More info: http://www.ifpri.org/event/geneva-launch-ifpris-2016-global-food-policy-report

1. TRADE IN GLOBAL
FOOD SYSTEMS
Lee Ann Jackson
Agriculture and Commodities Division
World Trade Organization

2. Reshaping global food systems
• New ideas for catalysing change
• Bottom up versus top down
• Systems thinking and feedback loops
• Stabilizing – eg. Agriculture prices
• Amplifying – eg. Warming global temperatures
• Integrated policy approaches needed
• Agriculture productivity
• Nutrition and health
• Natural resource management
• Markets & trade
A B

3. Nairobi Ministerial Outcome
• Export competition
• Eliminating export subsidies and disciplining other forms of export
measures
• Annual monitoring in the CoA
• Review every 3 years
• Special Safeguard Mechanism
• Public stockholding
• Cotton

4. Multilateral trading system
WTO
• Rules
• Transparency
• Monitoring and review
• Dispute resolution
Agricultural markets
To explain the world of interactions and outcomes occurring at multiple levels, we also
have to be willing to deal with complexity instead of rejecting it.
- Elinor Ostrom, Nobel Price Laureate

5. Monitoring and transparency:
Regular Committee on Agriculture
• Notifications
• Committee Review
• Questions on notifications
• Questions on matters relevant to implementation
• Dedicated discussions
• Export Competition monitoring
Without transparency, trade rules are just words on paper
- Robert Wolfe, Queen’s University

6. How does trade system interact in the
food system?
Characteristics Policy examples WTO levers
Efficient Remove export
subsidies
Nairobi Ministerial
Inclusive Connecting smallholders
to food value chains
Harmonization of SPS
measures
Climate smart Risk management
policies to mitigate
climate change
Agreement on
Agriculture
Sustainable Minimizing food losses
caused by plant pests
SPS Agreement
Nutrition/Health driven Nutrition labelling TBT Agreement
Business friendly Transparent, predictable
markets
Monitoring and review in
WTO committees