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The World Trade Organization and Sustainable Development: A Guide to the Debate
Briefing Paper
Duncan Brack, December 2005
- As traditional tariff barriers have fallen everywhere, and as trade negotiators have turned their attention to other government policies which may affect international trade in products and services, the international trading system governed by the WTO has come to affect more and more areas of government policy. Governments deciding environmental, health and labour standards, rules for service provision or intellectual property rights protection now cannot ignore the WTO.
- The outcome of this process is to bring to the fore the disputed relationship between sustainable development and the liberalization of international trade. It has been argued that trade liberalization is essential to economic and social development and environmental protection; and, conversely, that it is harmful to one or all of these three pillars of sustainable development - or at least, that it gives a much greater focus to economic growth at the expense of the social and environmental dimensions.
- The purpose of this briefing paper is to provide a concise background to the main issues at stake in the interaction between the WTO system and sustainable development. It considers a series of 'frequently asked questions', including whether big business unduly influences the WTO, how much developing countries benefit from world trading rules, the WTO's impact on environmental policy, including policies designed to regulate trade in GM products and in illegal timber, the interrelationship between the WTO and standards of labour standards and of animal welfare, and whether or not agricultural liberalization will benefit sustainable development.
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