AoA Reimagined project leaders at a meeting in Switzerland, Sep. 2024.
The current World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) fails to support food systems that are consistent with the ambition of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Not only are global warming, biodiversity loss, pandemics and wars putting pressure on food production and distribution worldwide, but agriculture itself is exacerbating the problems because agricultural commodity markets fail to internalize important costs.
IATP, with the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern (CDE) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is co-leading a three-year project, the “Agreement on Agriculture Re-Imagined,” that will advance urgently needed changes to the global trading system to meet the mounting challenges in global food distribution. Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the initiative brings together a core consortium of international scholars and nongovernmental organizations from the Global North and South.
The consortium is drafting an alternative framework for trade rules for agriculture, a Re-Imagined Agreement on Trade in Agriculture creating a Model Treaty on Agricultural Trade for Sustainable Food Systems (AoA SFS). The Model Treaty’s aim is to encourage agricultural trade that supports sustainable food systems in diverse contexts. The AoA SFS is founded on agroecological principles of accountability and inclusion, justice and sustainability. It is being tested through broad iterative stakeholder consultations at the Swiss domestic level and international level. Based on feedback received between November 2025 and March 2026, the Draft Model Treaty will undergo refinement prior to publication. The initiative’s goal is to stimulate discussion and support ambitious proposals for change in international trade regulation.
Working Papers
Bürgi Bonanomi E., Schäli J, Graphic Design of Model Treaty on Agricultural Trade for Sustainable Food Systems, CDE 2025.
For project outputs, see CDE Agreement on AgricultureRe-Imagined and IATP.
Partners
- Experts from Argentina, Brazil, China, the EU, India, Switzerland, Uganda, the United States, and Zimbabwe
- Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) (Co-lead)
- Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern (Co-lead)
- International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) (Co-lead)
- Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI), Uganda
- ETH Zurich
- Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Geneva Office
[Watch] Small-Scale producers and international trade discussion
As part of the IISD Trade + Sustainability Hub taking place alongside the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference in Cameroon in March 2026, IATP co-organized this side event with the University of Bern Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) and IISD to discuss the Agreement on Agriculture Reimagined draft model treaty.