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Food trade became a contentious issue in the global trade negotiations the GATT in the 1980s and then in the World Trade Organization (WTO). The course will explore how the conflicts in food trade emerged and developed to provide an understanding of the current challenges to the global food trading system. The historical developments within the global food trading regime have had an important influence on the ongoing negotiations in the WTO’s Doha Development Round. When the Agreement on Agriculture was adopted in 1994, surplus production and depressed prices characterised the world market for food. Market liberalisation was seen as the solution to this problem. Since 2007, the market situation has changed dramatically as prices have increased significantly, causing food crises in 2007/08 and 2011 and raising concerns about food security. This market development was not envisaged in the Agreement on Agriculture and has led a number of developing countries to request more flexibility to protect their domestic markets in order to stabilise domestic food prices. This has challenged the market liberal idea underpinning the Agreement of Agriculture and caused severe difficulties in the ongoing Doha Round negotiations. Further, the proliferation of retailer led private food standard schemes has resulted in challenges to the WTO’s Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) which was aimed at harmonising domestic food safety and biosecurity policy measures to create a level playing field for food trade. The private schemes are causing increasing concern amongst food exporting developing countries since they increase production costs. The course will discuss these current challenges to the global food trading regime how they affect domestic agricultural and food safety policy making.