Trade-related measures linked to the environmental sustainability of agriculture

This report takes stock of trade-related measures to address environmental issues related to agriculture in OECD Member countries and develops a typology to categorise them, thereby increasing transparency on the range of measures used and facilitating their comparison. A total of 130 measures applied or approved in 15 OECD Member countries and the European Union between 1997 and 2024 were identified. Over half of these measures were introduced between 2020 and 2024. Most identified measures are ‘environment-related provisions’ in regional trade agreements (RTAs) with linkages to agriculture. A few measures are ‘environmental trade preferences’ for agricultural products as part of RTAs, conditional on demonstrating environmentally sustainable production. The rest are ‘environmental market access’ measures contained in national regulatory frameworks, making agricultural products’ eligibility to government programmes or their access to markets conditional on meeting environmental requirements.