Recent global policy trends: biosecurity advancements, consumption supports, new tariff regimes

During January–⁠February 2026, FAPDA recorded 1 060 policy actions, covering 55 broad topics and 177 countries, territories and regional economic communities, reflecting government responses to address current emerging issues in agrifood systems.

Advancing biosecurity to safeguard human, animal, plant and environmental health alongside strengthened natural resources protection

Across the world, governments are strengthening actions to conserve and manage natural resources. In the Persian Gulf region, Iraq and Saudi Arabia have intensified efforts to curb overfishing by conducting field inspections to ensure compliance of seasonal fishing bans and approved gear standards, as well as by enforcing stricter penalties for the use of illegal fishing methods.

Progress in forest governance is also accelerating. Bangladesh introduced a new legislation prohibiting the harming of trees with metallic objects for non-commercial purposes. The Republic of Moldova approved a national scheme for forest regeneration and ecological reconstruction. Malaysia underscored the commitment to climate-aligned resource protection, by establishing a carbon market and deploying Artificial Intelligence tools in environmental monitoring. Angola has designated its first internationally recognized wetland in the Zambesi biogeographical region, covering over 53 kilometers square, providing 95 percent of Okavango delta's water, as a move to strengthen biodiversity safeguards and reinforces the country's commitment to international environment agreements. Simultaneously, Somalia unveiled an USD 18.9 million national biodiversity program for the conservation and protection of both terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

Alongside efforts to protect natural resources, cross-border diseases control measures have accelerated to safeguard human and animal health.  Following a Nipah virus outbreak in India in January 2026, surveillance intensified across Southeast Asia as the region works toward Nipah-free status. Malaysia has strengthened the biosecurity monitoring through a massive public health screening campaign and by encouraging farmers in fruit trees farms to report suspicious symptoms immediately. Similarly, Myanmar and Thailand issued travel health advisories and limited tourist flows in indoor venues.

These monitoring and control measures are being implemented alongside immediate trade restrictions. For example, Indian trading partners, including Kyrgyzstan and Saudi Arabia, imposed temporary import bans on live animals and fresh produce, coupled with mandatory phytosanitary inspections. The spread of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) in the Middle East and Southern Africa prompted large-scale livestock vaccination campaigns in Botswana, Lebanon and South Africa while Namibia and Zambia enforced strict movement bans on live animals and meat products.

Responding to these emergencies, countries shifted toward digitalized health and food safety governance. For instance, Egypt adopted digital licensing for livestock breeders, Iraq opened electronic veterinary certification platforms, Viet Nam’s implemented risk-based digital quarantine monitoring. Recognizing the interconnection between human, animal, plant health with environmental protection, Samoa invested USD 4.8 million to embed the One Health approach into epidemic-preparedness, while Timor-Leste, Brazil and Colombia strengthened pesticide and chemical governance through stricter, full-lifecycle controls from licensing and import to safe disposal.

Scaling-up consumption support for households during festivities

Amid heightened seasonal demands, governments expanded various measures to support households' consumption during major festivities such as the New year, Lunar New Year and the Holy Month of Ramadan, reinforcing affordability, safety and stability of food supply. Malaysia introduced highway toll discounts to ease travel costs, while Viet Nam intensified food safety inspections across industrial kitchens, restaurants and streets vendors. To contain price surge and guarantee food supply during Ramadan, several countries, including Libya, Lebanon and Iraq, introduced digitalized price monitoring campaigns. Other governments intervened with trade-related measuring suspending exports of meat and vegetables (as in Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania and Türkiye) or reducing custom duties on imported commodities, like in Bangladesh. These seasonal interventions were complemented by broader macroeconomic adjustments. For example, the Maldives increased foreign currency sales to commercial banks to secure essential food imports during peak demand.

Entering a new import tariff regime   

On February 20, the United State Supreme Court ruled that the import tariffs imposed on US trading partners in April 2025 were unlawful and must be suspended, except for sector-specific import tariffs on steel, automotives, or electronic devices. In response, the Presidency of the United States of America introduced a temporary global surcharge ranging from 10 to 15 percent, applied in addition to the existing sectoral tariffs, with a maximum duration of 150 days, unless the Congress approves of extension.   

The newly announced tariff regime is expected to primarily affect major exporters in the targeted sectors - such as Japan, Republic of Korea and the European Union - which have suspended previous agreements with the United States of America and sought renegotiation. Countries exporting more diversified goods including Bangladesh, Viet Nam, or Indonesia, as well as those operating under less preferential prior agreements, such as Brazil or China, may face more limited short-run impacts.

Meanwhile, India and Taiwan have secured deals to contain tariff exposure, while Argentina, Ecuador and Guatemala are working to formalize reciprocal frameworks. African countries like Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Somalia and United Republic of Tanzania are also pursuing negotiations with the US, while simultaneously accelerating trade diversification. This shift follows China's announcement that it will eliminate import tariffs for almost all African countries. The European Union is pursuing a similar diversification strategy, having signed a long-awaited free trade agreement with MERCOSUR member states. Although full implementation may be delayed by up to 18 months, most provisions can be enacted without a formal ratification of the agreement if at least one MERCOSUR country agrees. Additionally, companies worldwide impacted by revenue losses from previous tariff regimes are now seeking reimbursement from the US government.  

THEMATIC FOCUS: Policy actions toward achieving SDG 2 Zero Hunger

As 2026 marks the final five-year window towards 2030, revisiting the policy actions undertaken toward the SDGs is essential not only to assess progress to date but also to strategically position forthcoming efforts, sharpen implementation pathways, and accelerate momentum toward achieving the 2030 Agenda. The discussion below provides a quick overview on governments’ commitments and efforts towards the achievement of SDG 2, while financial commitment and budget allocation will be assessed in a separate policy intelligence study.

Since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda in 2016, based on the Food and Agriculture Policy Decision Analysis (FAPDA) database, 188 national governments and 17 Regional Economic Communities (RECs) have strengthened their commitment to achieve SDG 2 Zero Hunger, aiming to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”. Policy approaches have progressively shifted from sectoral interventions targeting nutrition and food security toward integrated, cross-sectoral frameworks. Priorities have focused on coordinating agrifood systems with health, social protection, natural resource management, and climate change mitigation, reflecting a move toward addressing structural drivers of hunger. 

National governments of Least Developed Countries across regions, including Bangladesh, Malawi, Nepal, Rwanda and United Republic of Tanzania characterized their policy environment with producer-oriented interventions focused on increasing food availability. Countries with more stable food supplies, like Peru, Costa Rica or Viet Nam have pursued a comprehensive cross-sectional approach, combining producer-oriented with consumer-oriented interventions, to boost the sustainable transformation of national agrifood systems. Countries facing acute water scarcity, mostly located in Northern Africa and the Middle East, governments are mainstreaming food security and nutrition policies into their water resource management and climate change mitigation action plans.

To benchmark national governments’ efforts towards achieving SDG 2, FAOSTAT monitors key indicators of undernourishment (2.1.1), food insecurity (2.1.2). The analysis draws on data from countries consistently monitored over the period 2016–2023. High-income countries (HICs), including for instance Spain, the United States of America, and Norway, exhibit robust performance on these indicators due to sustained policy commitment. Outside of the HIC group, Brazil, Costa Rica and Malaysia also show solid outcomes and sustained policy engagement.

In Brazil, the success results from efforts of both consumption and production interventions. The consumer-oriented measures integrate public campaigns for nutrition awareness and dietary education, front-of-pack labelling, regulations on supply chain transparency, cash and in-kind transfers to vulnerable populations. Production-oriented policy instruments cover public procurement from local producers and price stabilization applied to staple commodities, such as wheat and rice, alongside financial and credit facilitation measures related to crop insurance, reduction of interest rates for agricultural loans and technical assistance on climate risk management.

In Costa Rica, consumer-oriented measures comprise school meal programs, regulations on supply chain transparency and pesticide use, deliveries of food packages and sanitary items for individuals and households in extreme poverty. Producer-oriented measures include wholesale/retail price floors and ceilings for rice and other staple commodities, targeted credit lines and interest rate reductions through public banks, risk management funds for climate and weather-related events, seed distribution programs for smallholders, support and regulatory oversight on organic fertilizer production.

In Malaysia, consumer-oriented measures encompass conditional cash transfers, targeted subsidies for basic foodstuffs including animal-source protein, sugar taxation on beverage, food safety regulations on supply chain transparency to safeguard consumers’ health. Producer-oriented measures focus on stabilizing agricultural markets through price interventions on staple commodities and government procurements from local producers, complemented by soft-loan schemes and financial incentives that help smallholders to adopt digital agricultural practices. Farmers can access dedicated funds at concessional annual interest rates of 3–4 percent, which are 2–3 percentage points lower than the commercial lending rates between 5–6.6 percent.

Despite government commitment and a broad array of policy initiatives spanning agrifood production, public health, value chain development, technological innovation, and natural resources conservation, progress towards the achievement of SDG 2 remains slow in several countries, including, for instance, Guatemala, Kenya and Pakistan. This raises a strategic question: Are current outcomes constrained by the scale and quality of investments and budget allocations, or do they necessitate a more fundamental reassessment of policy coherence?    

The Food and Agriculture Policy Decision Analysis (FAPDA) tool is a global policy intelligence platform tracking agrifood-related policy actions across 211 countries and territories, and over 30 regional economic communities. Updated daily, it contains over 40 000 policy documents, including 13 600 long-term policy frameworks (visions, strategies, plans, policy orientations, etc.) and more than 27 500 short-term national policy decisions.

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