Food and Agricultural Trade in the New Policy Environment: How Can WTO Members Support Economic Recovery and Resilience?

IFPRI, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Akademiya2063 and Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture are organizing a series of virtual regional dialogues that will cover anglophone and francophone Africa, South Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The series brings together policymakers and other stakeholders to look at how policies affecting trade in food and agriculture can better deliver on food security, environmental sustainability, and other public policy goals in the current context of COVID-19 and the ongoing WTO negotiations in the run-up to the 12th ministerial conference.

Trade in food and farm goods has been disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak, imperiling efforts to tackle hunger and malnutrition under the SDG framework. The farm sector is also under increasing pressure to respond to environmental challenges, especially climate change. With the WTO’s next ministerial conference postponed due to the pandemic and ongoing tensions between major economies, both the substance and process of talks in Geneva on updating the global trade rulebook have been affected. As governments revisit their priorities in this new context, they must engage with multiple constituencies at home and beyond to ensure that negotiating strategies reflect an inclusive vision of public policy goals — one that can contribute to recovery from the pandemic and improve resilience to future shocks.

Events

• November 17th at 9:30am EST - French Africa panel Virtual Event - Food and agricultural trade in the new policy environment: How can WTO members support economic recovery and resilience in Africa?
  
  • (This event will take place in French with simultaneous interpretation into English)

• November 23^rd at 9:30am EST - Virtual Event - Food and Agricultural Trade in the New Policy Environment: How Can WTO Members Support Economic Recovery and Resilience in Latin America and the Caribbean?
  
  • (This event will take place in Spanish with simultaneous interpretation into English)

• December 08^th at 9:30am EST – English Africa panel Virtual Event - Food and agricultural trade in the new policy environment: How can WTO members support economic recovery and resilience in Africa?

• December 17^th at 6:00am EST – Virtual Event - Food and Agricultural Trade in the New Policy Environment: How Can WTO Members Support Economic Recovery and Resilience in South Asia?