Key Leverage Points for Making Agri‐food Trade and Value Chains More Sustainable

Summary Based on evidence from 15 case studies in Africa, Europe (with domestic policy focus of 2 studies), and parts of Latin America and Asia (3 studies) analysed under the Horizon 2020 MATS project, we show how agricultural trade may contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goals by leveraging policy‐relevant points of intervention in trade regimes applicable to agri‐food value chains. Key leverage points identified as part of a mixed‐methods approach integrating institutional and legal frameworks analyses relate to accountability and transparency, due diligence, collaboration and justice mechanisms in governance. In practice this means that relatively small changes in governance through strengthening property rights and land titles, lowering transaction and thus compliance costs for sustainability standards adoption in value chains, and supporting the adoption of sustainability impact assessments as part of trade regimes could achieve significant benefits to the EU, its trading partners and local value‐chain stakeholders. Furthermore, EU policymakers could be placing gender‐based conditions on credit and loan support, or extend existing trade agreements and policy initiatives by integrating them with ex‐ante and ex‐post sustainability impact assessments that further support capacity building and transparency, hence good governance. Overall, reducing inequalities as a key leverage point was identified as instrumental for systems change toward more sustainable agricultural trade. If acted upon by policymakers, the above leverage points hold promise that the EU and its trading partners could in the future address triple bottom line sustainability challenges more effectively than at present.