English Français

Key Message

Properly crafted laws to govern international trade will allow states to pursue sustainable development, while offering the predictability and fairness that allow for large and equitable gains from trade and investment flows.

Trade Law and SD

Seeking international law that contributes to sustainable development

What's New in Trade Law and SD?

  • A Sustainable Development Roadmap for the WTO
    (PDF - 3.2 MB)
    The impasse in the Doha negotiations offers both grounds for concern about the current regime's model, and the breathing space in which to thoughtfully consider how that model might better serve today's needs. This short book argues that the WTO has committed to sustainable development as one of its basic objectives, and asks what the organization would look like if that objective were rigorously pursued. The answers (that range across areas as diverse as dispute settlement, accession, trade and environment, trade and development, and the negotiation process) identify what needs to be done and what role the WTO should play. The result is a timely roadmap for helping the WTO achieve its full economic, environmental and social potential.

Modern trade law governs much more than just tariff levels of goods as they move across borders. For one thing, it goes more broadly to cover trade in services as well. For another, it governs a host of practices that occur "behind the border," dictating how countries should propound and implement standards covering goods (including environmental and health-related standards); what sort of legal regime they should have to protect intellectual property rights; what forms of subsidies they may enact; how they should treat foreign investors; how governments should procure goods and services, and so on.

As such, trade law—embodied in the World Trade Organization and the myriad bilateral and regional agreements on trade and investment—has an enormous influence on the ability of governments to harness globalization in the pursuit of national interests. IISD's work in this area focuses on ensuring that the rules and the regimes that produce them are formulated so as to ensure the greatest possible contribution to sustainable development.

Contents