Implications for Doha and Beyond

As the Doha Round of trade negotiations moves forward, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) have joined forces to look at the current state of trade law as it relates to some key environmental issues. The objective is to establish what the current state of the law is in these areas—a prerequisite to meaningful dialogue on what the state of the law should be.

This authoritative book, launched at the Cancun Ministerial Conference of the WTO in September 2003, addresses four issues that are relevant to the Doha Agenda, even if they are not fully expressed in it:

• the status of trade law relating to process and production methods and extraterritorial measures;

• the relationship of WTO obligations to multilateral environmental agreements;

• the precautionary principle, the role of science and the WTO Agreements; and

• the relationship between intellectual property rights, TRIPS and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

These issues were significant during the negotiation of the Uruguay Round, or became so shortly afterwards. As well, they have all seen significant legal development over the past decade. As such, an accurate reflection of the current state of the law is important for situating these issues into future discussions, including the post-Doha negotiations.

Purchase or download The State of Trade and Environment Law 2003: Implications for Doha and Beyond