This book explores how industry associations in Brazil’s soy and sugarcane sectors influence the development of global sustainability norms, challenging the traditional view of Southern actors as passive rule-takers. Bridging the fields of sustainability, trade, and transnational governance, this book develops and refines the concepts of strategic inconsistency and GVC interlegality to explain how Global South actors navigate and reshape the complex regulatory systems governing global trade. Through detailed empirical analysis, it reveals how Brazilian agro-industry organizations strategically engage with overlapping governance initiatives to assert influence, balance domestic and global demands, and advance their interests. Offering a timely contribution to debates on the trade–sustainability nexus, this book repositions the Global South as a key player in defining the future of sustainable globalization. It is essential reading for scholars and practitioners of international political economy, sustainability governance, and global trade who seek to understand how power and agency are being reconfigured across global value chains.

Karina Marzano Franco is a licensed attorney with a Bachelor of Laws from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in European Law and Integration from the Europa-Institut at Saarland University in Germany, an MBA in International Relations from the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Brazil, and a Doctorate in Social Sciences (Dr. rer. pol.) from the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt in Germany. Her research focuses on the intersection between sustainability and trade, with an emphasis on supply chain law and governance. Since March 2023, she has been working at the think tank Agora Industry, initially as Project Lead for Industrial Transformation in Brazil from the Berlin office and more recently as Project Lead for Trade and International Partnerships from the Brussels office. Her background combines academic and professional experience in both Latin America and Europe, alongside expertise in law and political science, positioning her well to offer new insights into private governance and global value chains through this book.