The WTO in crisis: lessons learned from the Doha negotiations on the environment |
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| Authors: | RICHARD TARASOFSKY ALICE PALMER |
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| Institution: | Head of the Energy, Environment and Development Programme at Chatham House, which carries out research on a wide range of topics relating to sustainable development. An international lawyer by training, he has been engaged in the interface between international trade policy and sustainable development for the last 15 years and has published widely in this area. Before joining Chatham House, he was a Legal Offi cer at IUCN (The World Conservation Union) where he led projects relating to the progressive development of international environmental law, such as biodiversity, desertication and climate change.;Senior Adviser to the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD) where she works on issues concerning the promotion of environmental and sustainable development objectives within the global trade and finance framework. She previously specialized in the environmental aspects of corporate transactions as a lawyer in the US and in Australia. |
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| Abstract: | Even before the Doha Round of international trade talks in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) had been suspended in July 2006, there was little sign of progress in the negotiations on the relationship between WTO rules and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). If the Round is resumed, this and many other important issues on the WTO agenda will have to take a back seat while the big ticket items—agriculture and market access—are resolved. Meanwhile, governments acting outside the WTO will continue to agree to new MEA commitments that relate to trade policy without a clear understanding of how the design and implementation of those commitments is affected by WTO rules. This article examines some of the options for governments to clarify the relationship between WTO rules and ME As, both inside and outside the WTO. It sets out the nature and experience of the relationship, before examining ways in which governments in the WTO and in the UN system could work towards better global governance of trade and sustainable development. |
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