Today an increasing amount of food is traded on the international market. As in most European countries, Norwegian food legislation is based on rules that are effective at the global level as well as on regional and national law. These rules may express different values when it comes to what are considered fair practices in the food trade. This article examines the significance of global food standards in the regulation of fair practices in food trade in the EEA country Norway. Because international food standards are linked to international WTO treaties the author considers the standards to fall within the definition of soft law, but with a somewhat greater significance than other regulations referred to as such.