World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is the foundation of international trade law. While there has been a flourishing of regional and bilateral agreements concluded in the past decade, all of these operate from the basic platform of WTO law as a starting point. IISD's Trade Program has focused much attention on the WTO, and how it might be made more responsive to the challenges posed by a concern for sustainable development.
The WTO not only sets rules which circumscribe the way environmental policies may be formulated, but it also embodies more general rules that guide the flow of trillions of dollars of economic activity across the borders of the world—activity that has enormous potential to frustrate or foster sustainable development.
As well, the WTO has been gradually moving to extend its authority into non-trade areas of domestic policy relevant to sustainable development, such as intellectual property rights, investment, services and competition policy.
The current negotiations under the Doha Mandate provide a number of clear areas of focus in the nexus that binds trade, environment and development.
Related Papers
-
Parallel Importation: Economic and social welfare dimensions
"Parallel imports" involve fundamental issues of trade and intellectual property policy. This briefing paper starts with an introduction to the concept of parallel importation, and proceeds to discuss the complex economic and developmental issues raised by it. -
Environmental Goods Negotiations
This paper analyzes possible approaches for ensuring a balance in trade gains in the ongoing WTO negotiations on environmental goods. It begins with a realistic assessment of the negotiations under Para 31(iii) of the Doha Ministerial Declaration and touches upon the progress made in the negotiations so far vis-à-vis different Members' positions. It suggests that a combination of Special and Differential Treatment provisions and bringing environmentally preferable products of export interest to developing countries in the ambit of environmental goods, could offer a balanced deal to the developing countries.
Key Publication
Environment and Trade: A Handbook - Second Edition
» UNEP, IISD, 2005.This handbook, a joint effort of IISD and the United Nations Environment Programme, is aimed mainly at those with some knowledge about trade, environment or development, but not expert on the intersection of the three. It is also a practical reference tool for policy-makers and practitioners. But the target audience is not just government policy-makers; the media and public will also find it useful. The handbook uses clear language and a minimum of jargon. Its balanced, basic approach has made it a standard reference since the first edition was released in 2001.
More...
Our Knowledge
» Themes
- Climate Change and Energy
- Economics and SD
- Foreign Investment for SD
- Governance for Sustainable Development
- Information Society
- International Trade
- Measurement and Assessment
- Natural Resources
- Networks & Partnerships
- Security
- Sustainable Markets
- Tomorrow's SD Leaders
» Initiatives
- Finance Alliance For Sustainable Trade (FAST)
- Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI)
- IISDLabs.org
- The IISD Media Blog
