Whereas the challenges of GCG are manifold, its principal task lies in ensuring a functional commodity sector (Sect. 2.1). The ‘balanced’ mode through which it pursues this objective constitutes a departure from historical approaches to regulating transnational commodity activity (Sect. 2.2). The remainder of this treatise will be concerned with the role of the law in fostering the effectiveness of GCG (Sect. 2.3).