Advancing sustainable food systems cooperation in trade agreements: Lessons from Chile

The transition toward sustainable food systems that ensure food security and adequate nutrition is increasingly urgent. Although trade and investment agreements have sometimes hindered this transition, their potential to support it remains underexplored. Chile offers an illustrative case: its liberalised agro-export model has produced a highly industrialised food system, while the country faces rising diet-related diseases and has developed pioneering nutrition policies. In 2023, Chile and the European Union (EU) signed an Advanced Framework Agreement that includes a Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) Chapter, representing an attempt to align sustainability objectives with trade policy. This study examined how actor interactions, power dynamics, and feasibility conditions shaped the agenda-setting, chapter-drafting, and legitimation of the SFS Chapter, using a theory-informed qualitative design based on semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis. The findings highlight the EU’s role in promoting the chapter within a context characterised by the convergence of global agendas and domestic policy developments. Although introduced at an advanced stage of the negotiations, Chile was not a passive policy-taker and actively shaped the chapter’s scope and legal character. Its broad acceptance was facilitated by its cooperative and non-binding nature, while the limited participation of the health and environment sectors contributed to approaches wherein concepts such as One Health and ‘sustainable diets’ were negotiated primarily through trade and agricultural perspectives. These findings contribute to understanding the governance conditions that shape the incorporation of sustainability-oriented policy innovations into trade agreements and offer lessons for countries seeking to meaningfully integrate health and sustainability objectives into trade policy.