Target 2.b: Correct trade restrictions and export subsidies
Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
Trade rules are set by governments at the WTO, which agreed in Nairobi in December 2015 to eliminate agricultural export subsidies. Brookings notes such subsidies had inflated prices and surpluses in exporting countries while undercutting producers in importing countries. Remaining distortions are domestic support and tariffs decided in national farm policy, where farm organizations and agrifood associations such as Copa-Cogeca hold influence. InfluenceMap documents that these associations can stall or weaken EU legislation. Listed companies have lobbied for trade-distorting programs. The Cato Institute documented Archer Daniels Midland's sustained political spending behind ethanol supports and the sugar program of import quotas and price supports. Cato estimated that at least 43 percent of ADM's profits came from products heavily subsidized or protected by the US government. Farm-producer organizations remain the main political constituency behind today's farm-trade distortions, however. Owners pressing listed agribusinesses and traders on lobbying disclosure and alignment help at the margin while governments set the rules.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- The WTO's decision to end agricultural export subsidies is good news for farmers and consumers, Brookings Institution, 2016-02-08
- The Meat and Dairy Industry Lobbying That Is Pressing Pause on Climate Legislation in the EU, InfluenceMap, 2024-05-29
- Archer Daniels Midland: A Case Study in Corporate Welfare, Cato Institute, 1995-09-26
No shareholder advocacy found yet
We looked and found nothing that met our standard, which is a source we opened and confirmed. Agricultural export subsidies and tariffs are set by WTO members and national farm policy. Searches for shareholder proposals or investor coalition engagements at ADM, Bunge or other listed agribusinesses on trade-distorting subsidies, the sugar program, ethanol supports or farm-trade lobbying returned nothing that met the sourcing standard. The one shareholder vote located at ADM in this area was on pesticide disclosure, which is a different concern, and the PRI collaborative engagement at ADM is on climate transition planning.
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.