International Studies Journal (ISJ)

International Studies Journal (ISJ)

The role of WTO in Food security: Institutional and Political procedures

Document Type : Original Independent Original Article

Authors
AmirHossein Ajdari 1
Rouhollah Rahami 2
1 Department of Law and Political science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
2 Department of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/isj.2025.475215.2220
Abstract
According to the definition of the 1996 World Food Summit, Food security is a situation in which all people, at all times, have physical access to sufficient and nutritious food and the economic means to meet their food needs and preferences for an active and healthy life. The factors that have led to food insecurity today are both human and natural, such as wars, natural disasters, climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, economic recession, etc., which are interconnected. By identifying Food security as an important aspect of today's security, it becomes important to identify the international actors involved and examine their roles. Given that the World Trade Organization is one of the pioneer international actors related to Food security, the question of this research is under which process and in what way can this organization act in this area? This article proposes the hypothesis that since trade-related policies, including import tariffs, export restrictions, and domestic protection measures, may affect international trade and supply chains, the World Trade Organization, as an important international actor with the ability to legislate in the field of international trade, can demonstrate effective activism on the issue of Food security by relying on its institutional capacity. The selected method of this study is qualitative content analysis, and articles, books, documents, and internet sources are used to collect data.
Keywords
Food security
World Trade Organization
Ministerial Conference
Committee on Agricultural
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Subjects
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