This work provides strategies for integrating environmental concerns into the negotiating process when multilateral trade and investment agreements are being negotiated. It also addresses unresolved questions about establishing a procedure for introducing these concerns into negotiations.
Trade liberalization, as promoted by the World Trade Organization (WTO), has become one of the dominant drivers and most controversial aspects of globalization. Trade sustainability impact assessments (SIAs) were introduced as a means of generating better understanding especially of the social and environmental impacts of trade liberalisation, and of making those impacts more consistent with sustainable development. This book takes a hard look at the experience of Trade SIAs to date, and the extent to which they have achieved their objectives and improved the outcomes of trade negotiations. It proposes several ways in which Trade SIAs could be made more effective, and illustrates these in respect of controversial sectors in which trade liberalisation has been implemented or proposed, including commodities, services and investment. Finally the book makes proposals beyond SIA through which some of the conflicts between trade liberalization and sustainable development could be more effectively addressed. Written by top researchers and experts on trade SIAs, this book is vital for researchers, academics, post-graduate students and policy makers working on any aspect of impact assessment, international trade or globalisation more generally. In addition, the book will provide a particularly useful background for those considering how the environment and trade interrelate at both global and regional levels, with some particular insights on climate change and trade policies.
This document contains summaries of six country studies commissioned by UNEP, which seek to identify the environmental, social and economic effects of trade liberalisation policies. The studies examine: the fisheries sector in Argentina; the cotton industry in China, the banana trade in Ecuador; the export crop sector in Nigeria; the fisheries industry in Sengal; and the forestry sector in Tanzania. The six detailed country studies are also available separately.
This book assesses the magnitude of the effects of trade liberalisation on welfare and the environment in the context of a small open economy, and the degree to which these effects are influenced by environmental policy. It is expected that the results of this study will provide some direction for trade and environmental policies, and will help to fill part of the empirical vacuum in this field. These results will be widely applicable to open-market-based economies and to countries embarking on major liberalisation programs.
Is it really true that the trade agreements pursued in the World Trade Organisation and through regional negotiations are vital for eliminating world poverty and achieving a sustainable future? Or is trade liberalization the villain of the piece? Clive George's provocative book examines the evidence, exposes the myths, and presents challenging new proposals for comprehensive reform of the global trading system. Based on ten years of in-depth research into the impacts of trade agreements on sustainable development, it reveals that few of the claims made by the major players stand up to scrutiny, while many of the counter-claims lack rigour in their analysis of key issues. It cuts through the rhetoric with illuminating anecdotes from the author's experience of working with trade negotiators, to present a more realistic view of their motives and the outcomes they achieve. Each of the components of the negotiation agenda is examined in turn, to identify the most likely economic, social and environmental impacts of liberalising trade in manufactured goods, agriculture, services, investment, intellectual property rights and the other rules by which trade is governed. In some cases the rhetoric approximates to reality while in many others the negotiated outcomes do more harm than good to both development and its environmental sustainability. From its analysis of the relationships between trade, social transformation, economic growth and environmental integrity, the book concludes with proposals for how the world trade regime might be reformed to help tackle the world's most pressing problems instead of making them worse.
This book examines the extent to which there are trade impediments to the transfer and adoption of environmental goods and services and how can these be addressed by global trade negotiations.