Agriculture and Trade: Issues in the Climate Change Negotiations

Abstract

This paper is one of a series of five outputs produced under the Food Security and Climate Change Initiative of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). It surveys the key trade issues in the ongoing negotiations addressing agriculture as a sectoral approach to mitigation in the international climate change regime. While there is widespread agreement on the potential benefits of bringing agriculture into the regime, a number of important sticking points need resolution before such a step will be possible. Trade-related issues are some of the most significant. This paper starts by briefly laying out the background, noting the rationale and negotiating history to date. It then surveys the state of play, unpacking and analyzing the key issues and bringing to bear the history of trade law and policy to explain the lack of progress to date. It finishes by considering where we might go from here.

Keywords: unfccc, agriculture, trade, standards, sectoral, climate change

JEL Classification: K33, Q17