Policy Brief

The Agreement on Agriculture Re-Imagined

The World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is the only international framework governing trade in food and agriculture. However, as many stakeholders and commentators have observed, it is increasingly unfit for purpose. In addition to its inherent shortcomings, the AoA has failed over the years to adapt to new developments or to emerging global challenges. The current geopolitical juncture shows how vulnerable global food security, multilateral cooperation, environmental stewardship, and economic justice are, and how urgent it is to take steps to uphold these. The crisis in the multilateral trading system offers an opportunity to develop a vision of a reshaped international trading system with food security, environmental stewardship, and economic and social justice at its centre. The G20 is uniquely placed to play a leading role in doing so. Drawing on the work of an international interdisciplinary research consortium, this policy brief describes why it is necessary to redesign the multilateral legal framework governing international food and agricultural trade, starting from first principles. It also notes the importance of forums in which open, fresh discussions can take place. The policy brief recommends that the G20 provide such a forum. It could lead an initiative to start an in-depth discussion of what the global food and agricultural trade system should look like if it is to centre on food security, a healthy planet, and redressing historical inequities.

22 Oct 2025

Task Force

Keywords

Agreement on Agriculture (AoA)agricultureglobal trade governanceinternational trade

Author/s

Caroline Dommen
Independent Researcher, Geneva,
(Switzerland)
Sophia Murphy
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Minneapolis
(United States)
Elisabeth Buergi Bonanomi
Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern
(Switzerland)
Biswajit Dhar
Independent Researcher,
(India)
Yvonne Bartmann
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
(Switzerland)
Jikun Huang
School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Peking University
(China)
Johanna Jacobi
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich
(Switzerland)
Calvin Manduna
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Washington DC
(United States)