The World Trade Organization’s Eleventh Ministerial Conference ended without ministers providing clear direction for talks on agriculture—despite the need for urgent action to help advance Sustainable Development Goal 2 on ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture. Meanwhile, changing trade flows are reshaping markets for food and agriculture, along with preferential trade deals and national policy decisions. Together, these factors are likely to establish the contours of future negotiations on agriculture at the WTO. If countries are to build successfully on sustained engagement in 2017, progress between now and the twelfth ministerial conference in 2020 will require solid groundwork at the technical level. This brief explores a number of avenues to achieve multilateral progress.

Copyright International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development

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