ABSTRACT
The global agricultural trade regime is in the midst of a legitimacy crisis. This chapter evaluates the emergence and evolution of the governance of trade in global food and agriculture. It can be argued that supermarkets provide important opportunities to agricultural producers in the South. The chapter explains the inclusion of agriculture into the World Trade Organization via the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), and how this has influenced agricultural trade in practice. It examines governance over global food and agriculture supply chains. The chapter provides an overview of the issues of retail concentration, notably with European supermarket oligopolies, and of safety and quality standards established both through supply chains and international rules, which are not completely independent of the AoA. It also examines challenges to the legitimacy of the current agricultural trade regime, giving an overview of the movements that have emerged to resist the regime, with particular emphasis on the fair trade and food sovereignty movements.
