On July 23, 2025, the Working Group on Trade, Markets, and Incomes—established within the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC)—convened a global webinar to advance a collective analysis and vision for a new trade system rooted in food sovereignty. Coordinated by La Via Campesina and ROPPA (the West African Network of Peasants and Agricultural Producers), with support from Focus on the Global South and Terra Nuova, the event brought together nearly 120 participants from across continents. The webinar created space to examine how the current international trade system harms small-scale food producers, fishers, migrants, and local economies—and to collectively propose an alternative framework grounded in food sovereignty, justice, internationalism, multilateralism, and solidarity.

Context and Intentions

Held in advance of the upcoming Nyéléni Global Forum in Sri Lanka, the webinar aimed to build shared political strategy among grassroots movements, civil society organizations, and allies.

In his opening remarks, Dieudonne Pakodtogo of ROPPA (speaking on behalf of ROPPA President Ibrahima Coulibaly) thanked participants and emphasized the urgent need for a trade framework that centers the realities of small-scale food producers. He underscored the importance of implementing feasible public policies to support and strengthen sustainable food systems, thereby ensuring food and nutrition sovereignty in the region. He also expressed appreciation for the opportunity to engage in a collective and inclusive dialogue.

Critique of the Current Trade System

Shalmali Guttal of Focus on the Global South, co-moderating the session with Morgan Ody of La Via Campesina, reminded participants that since the WTO’s creation in 1995, popular struggles led by workers, peasants, Indigenous Peoples, fishers, migrants, and civil society across the Global South and North have managed to stall the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). Yet the trade and investment architecture that benefits corporations and elites remains intact—reinforced by global financial institutions and new forms of corporate control.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, delivered a video message, describing the AoA as “not only outdated, but harmful.” He explained that the current trade regime encourages food exports at the expense of local food systems, driving land grabs that benefit transnational corporations. Designed to favor industrialized countries—who can subsidize their agriculture—it leaves import-dependent nations without tools to stabilize farmer incomes or prices. By treating food solely as a commodity, the system disregards its cultural, social, and ecological importance.

Other speakers echoed this critique, identifying the WTO and bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) as central forces behind export-oriented agriculture, land and ocean grabbing, and deepening rural poverty. These agreements entrench structural injustices: they incentivize production for export rather than local consumption, allow rich countries to subsidize agribusiness while restricting protections in the Global South, and reduce food to a tradable good—stripping it of its cultural, spiritual, and relational value.

Impacts of Trade Liberalization

Testimonies from affected communities revealed the devastating impact of corporate-led trade policies and food systems.

Terence Repelente of PAMALAKAYA and the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP) described how WTO rules have decimated small-scale fisheries in the Philippines. Liberalized fisheries codes and the AoA opened markets to cheap imports, displaced traditional fishers, and incentivized export-oriented aquaculture controlled by foreign capital. Current WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies treat fish as industrial commodities—enabling overfishing by large fleets while criminalizing small-scale fishers under flawed “Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing” (IUUF) frameworks. WFFP firmly rejects the WTO’s authority over fisheries and calls for governance by inclusive bodies such as the FAO’s Committee on Fisheries.

Mercia Andrews from the Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) in South Africa emphasized that women—central to food production and seed preservation—are systemically marginalized. Lack of infrastructure, land access, and viable markets, combined with the dominance of supermarkets and fast food chains, are eroding traditional food systems. She called for investment in local markets, support for farmers’ cooperatives, and strong resistance to corporate-led food system transformation.

Lorena Macabuag from the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) highlighted how neoliberal trade regimes fuel mass migration by dismantling rural economies and social safety nets. Many migrate out of desperation. Migrant workers in agriculture and food processing face exploitation, low wages, and exclusion from legal protections—despite being essential to food systems that have displaced them. MFA asserted that migration must be a choice, not a survival strategy forced by unjust systems.

Sam Ikua of the Habitat International Coalition, speaking from Nairobi, brought in the perspective of urban and peri-urban food consumers. He called for an inclusive trade system that respects both producers’ and consumers’ rights, strengthens local food systems, and reduces reliance on cheap imports and processed food.

Dieudonne Pakodtogo of ROPPA reiterated that African nations can feed themselves, but trade policies undermine domestic production, flood markets with imports, and leave women food producers unpaid and invisible. He demanded transparency in trade negotiations, meaningful civil society participation, stronger indicators for food and nutrition sovereignty, and measures to protect producers’ incomes and dignity.

Beyond the WTO: Proposing a New Framework Based on Food Sovereignty

A key part of the webinar focused on envisioning a new trade system grounded in food sovereignty. Morgan Ody of La Via Campesina shared elements of a draft framework inspired by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP). She highlighted the potential of institutions like the FAO and UNCTAD to provide more democratic spaces for dialogue and governance than the WTO.

Since the 2022 WTO Ministerial, La Via Campesina has been pushing for a global process to build an alternative framework. Through years of internal consultations, the movement has developed a set of initial proposals, which she presented with an invitation for broader input and collaboration.

Key points of the draft framework that she presented include:

• Foundational Principles: Trade must prioritize the rights of people, communities, and ecosystems over profit. Based on the Nyéléni definition of food sovereignty, the framework should align with human rights and apply consistent principles within and across countries.
• Democratic Sovereignty: Every country must have the right to define its own food and agricultural policies. UN institutions like the FAO, CFS, and IFAD should support this right.
• Regional Trade: Trade should prioritize regional—not transcontinental—supply chains to shorten food systems and stabilize markets.
• Fair Markets: Small-scale producers must have access to price supports and income guarantees. Labor protections, fair wages, and a public observatory for pricing transparency are essential.
• Banning Harmful Practices: Dumping, corporate agribusiness subsidies, and speculative trading must be outlawed.
• Currency and Solidarity: Trade should move beyond reliance on dominant currencies, support equitable exchange, and reject neoliberal debt and conditional aid.
• Defending the Commons: Trade must protect land, water, biodiversity, and commons; advance agrarian reform; and promote collective, Indigenous, and agroecological management—free from corporate control or “greenwashing” schemes.

Morgan proposed that La Via Campesina bring these ideas to the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum for further discussion and collective development. She also highlighted the upcoming WTO Ministerial in Cameroon (March 2026) as a key opportunity to not only resist free trade policies, but to promote this concrete alternative.

Academic and activist Raj Patel offered historical and political insights, noting that today’s global trade rules stem from power imbalances rooted in the collapse of the Havana Charter and the sidelining of the New International Economic Order. While the decline of U.S. hegemony creates new possibilities, he warned against false alternatives like BRICS, which may simply replicate corporate-led models. He called for a transformative vision that resists both climate collapse and militarized economic paradigms.

Toward Nyéléni and Beyond

Speakers throughout the webinar emphasized that trade justice cannot be separated from broader struggles for climate justice, gender justice, economic sovereignty, and democratic control. Building a new trade system is not merely about policies—it’s about shifting power. The upcoming Nyéléni Forum was identified as a vital space to deepen convergence among movements, refine proposals, and advance a shared global strategy toward food sovereignty.