The work programme of the Trade Committee is agreed by Members every two years under three main headings: Trade and the level playing field; Trade liberalisation, facilitation and digitalisation; and Inclusive and sustainable trade. In all these areas, the Committee undertakes cutting edge analysis, develops databases and toolkits and facilitates policy dialogue. OECD work on trade is also guided by the 2023 OECD Contribution to Open Markets and International Trading System which set out three priorities: resilient supply chains; sustainable trade; and support for the rules based multilateral trading system, notably through work on subsidies and digital trade.

The Committee's current work focuses on measuring and analysing industrial subsidies; promoting sustainable and resilient supply chains; trade in the digital era; trade in services; trade and sustainability (including climate change); trade facilitation; inclusive trade (including gender and Indigenous Peoples); and countering illicit trade. The Committee is developing innovative tools for measuring global supply chains (building on its successful contributions to the OECD Trade in Value Added TiVA database) and investing in its toolkit for trade-policymakers (the Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI) and the Digital STRI; Trade Facilitation Indicators; Database on Export Restrictions on Critical Raw Materials; and Digital Trade Inventory).

Our global food system responds to the needs of a growing and more affluent world population. Resource depletion and climate change pose major challenges to this system, yet government support and interventions can help address these challenges if correctly aligned with evolving objectives. How the future of global food and agriculture systems evolves in coming decades will depend on targeted measures to meet this triple challenge.

The Fisheries Committee monitors and analyses fisheries policies across the OECD Membership and beyond with the objective of identifying best policies and practices and offer a unique forum for governments to exchange on policy experiences and identify ways of progressing toward fisheries and aquaculture sustainability and performance collectively. The Committee publishes its flagship report, the OECD Review of Fisheries, every two years, in which it updates information on policies for managing key commercial fisheries, and support to the sector, across countries, and analyses their potential impact.

The Committee has historically worked on the issue of government support to fisheries, notably to inform WTO fisheries subsidies negotiations, as well as domestic and regional discussions. The Fisheries Support Estimate database, and the associated risk-evaluation framework were developed to guide countries in improving their fisheries support policy mix and identify where better regulation and enforcement are needed to minimise the risk of environmental harm.  The Committee also works on the development of a legal instrument to eliminate government support to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, which would provide practical guidance on how to implement a key provision of the WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement and support and monitor its implementation.

With aquaculture growing in importance for global food systems, in the coming two years, the Committee will seek to close the transparency gap on support to aquaculture by developing a method to monitor and classify support to aquaculture. The COFI will also work on identifying avenues to help fisheries and aquaculture reduce GHG emissions while adapting to climate change, as the sector is already significantly hit by changing Ocean conditions and extreme weather events resulting from global warming.