Agriculture and sustainable development

The course will be composed of three general parts.

Part 1 deals with the Agriculture in the WTO trade law system. The original GATT 1947 did apply to agricultural trade, but it contained loopholes. Particularly, it allowed countries to use some non-tariff measures such as import quotas, and to subsidize agricultural production with the effect to highly distort the agricultural international trade. The Uruguay Round is a milestone because it represents the first comprehensive set of multilateral trade rules on agriculture whose fundamental objective is to reform trade in said sector and to make policies more market- oriented for improving predictability and security for importing and exporting countries alike. For these reasons, we will pay particular attention to the three pillars on which is based the current agricultural sector in the framework of the WTO trade system 1) market access; 2) domestic support; and 3) export competition.

Part 2 will address the state management of agricultural production in the European Union with comparative references to the situation in developed and developing economies. The questions to be addressed will include i) the use of subsidies, ii) the role of technology in agriculture since the first selection of grasses as grains, or semen and ova, to the new technologies of genetic modification or selection, agro-chemicals and growth promotion (hormones and the like) and iii) how the EU plans to address EU agriculture and climate change.
Part 3 will combine agriculture and sustainable development issue. Namely, after having provided students with a framework of European Common agricultural policy, it will be questioned whether, and how, this latter abide by Goal 2 enacted in Agenda 2030 (End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture). It will then scrutinized if results so far reached - or missed - within EU might by improved applying blockchain technologies in agricultural process and food quality control. Blockchain seems a useful instrument apt to receive, share and storage information and data. Guarantees of certitude, autonomy, no third party manipulation, of data so provided, might reach results required at normative level (see the role of RFID in agriculture). Accordingly, a practical study, such as that of Food-Chain will be taken as an example.

PART I (Prof. G. Peroni )
An overview of agricultural policies: The Agriculture in the GATT 1947-The Agriculture in the WTO: a general overview on main principles and rules on international trade and their impact on Agricultural trade - Analisys of the WTO Agreement on Agricultural products and its connections with the SPS and TBT Agreements - The role of DSB/WTO jurisprudence in the implementation of URAA principles and rules.

PART II (Prof. G. Peroni with the special participation and contribution of Prof. B. O'Connor)
An overview of:
· Subsidies in agricultural production
· Genetic modification and selection
· Growth promoters such as agro-chemicals and hormones
· Climate change and agriculture.