Post-Exceptionalism in the WTO’s Governance System for Food Trade

The world trade system is at a crossroad. Multilateralism is threatened as international trade-negotiations halt and the rhetoric of strong, trading powers put short-term narrow national interests before international cooperation and provision of global public goods. These tendencies have also placed the regulatory system for global food governance under strain. The WTO-agreement from 1994 established the World Trade Organization as the principal international authority for trade in food and agricultural products. The Agricultural Agreement (AoA) regulates domestic support for agricultural production, while the SPS-agreement (Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Masseurs) covers food safety, animal health and plant health regulations. The Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM), the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TRP), the SPS Committee and the Agricultural Committee (AC) are important elements in supervising Member States compliance with the rules. The Doha Development Agenda is a crucial element in the further development of the WTO system. However, these negotiations are now deadlocked, which together with in particular the US anti-multilateralism positions, impede necessary adjustments in existing rules and regulations. Based on an institutionalist approach, this paper asks how the described changes in international framework conditions influence global food governance. Are these changes causing dramatic changes in global food governance, or is it ‘business as usual’ where the WTO’s different forums continue to operate as before? Does the agri-food field in the WTO remain as an exceptionalist ideational framework characterized by special sector treatment, or does the asserted erosion of multilateralism push the sector towards ‘post-exceptionalism’ within the WTO-system, i.e. a more open, and contested policy field? We address these questions by analysing data from proceedings in the DSM, TRP and the Agriculture and SPS committees supplemented by interviews with the WTO Secretariat and national trade representative.