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Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics pp 1013–1023Cite as

Food, Agriculture, and Trade Organizations

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Synonyms

Trade associations; Trade institutions; Trade groups

Introduction

Trade organizations establish and enforce the rules of trade. The exemplary example of such an organization is the World Trade Organization (WTO). Established in 1995, the WTO marked the first time that an international organization had the legal mandate to regulate trade between nations, a role previously under the purview of individual nations. The objective of the WTO is to replace national trade rules, such as tariffs and quotas, and prohibit nontariff trade barriers, such as technical barriers or rules of origin, with a single institutional framework designed to allow trade to flow “as smoothly, predictably, and freely as possible” (World Trade Organization 2013). Changes wrought by the WTO led to the deepening of market relations globally, including the expansion of global value chains (GVC), where production is integrated from start to finish (Busch and Bain 2004; Bair 2009). Here, large-scale...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, 316 East Hall, Ames, IA, USA

    Carmen Bain

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  1. Carmen Bain
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Correspondence to Carmen Bain .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Paul B. Thompson

  2. Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

    David M. Kaplan

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Bain, C. (2014). Food, Agriculture, and Trade Organizations. In: Thompson, P.B., Kaplan, D.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0929-4_181

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0929-4_181

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

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  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0929-4

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