International Trade: Sustainability as a Multilateral, Bilateral, and Regional Effort

• Author: Kevin C. Kennedy
• Pages: 383-398

Chapter 25

International Trade: Sustainability as a

Multilateral, Bilateral, and Regional Effort

Kevin C. Kennedy

Achieving the goal of sustainable development requires multilat-

eral and regional approaches and solutions. Making sustainable de-

velopment an integral part of international trade thus must be more

than a bilateral or unilateral endeavor. The work of intergovernmental

organizations, especially the World Trade Organization (WTO), is

crucial to the smooth functioning of the complex interrelationship

among trade, investment, environment, and sustainable development.

In order to ensure mutual supportiveness between the international

trade legal regime administered by the WTO, on the one hand, and the

network of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), on the

other hand, proper policy coordination, cooperation, and information

exchange at the national and international level is essential. While

some modest steps have been taken in this regard, such as giving the

secretariats of various MEAs observer status at the WTO, unquestion-

ably more needs to be done. However, the lack of any serious discus-

sion about the interface of trade, environment, and sustainable devel-

opment over the past six years at the WTO may mean that no WTO

ministerial decision will be issued on this vitally important subject.

Trade and the Environment: The Johannesburg Summit

In recognition of the multilateral scope of sustainable develop-

ment, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Jo-

hannesburg (WSSD) identified three goals in its Plan of Implemen-

tation on the relationship among trade, environment, and sustain-

able development:

1. “Promote mutual supportiveness between the multilat-

eral trading system and the multilateral environmental

agreements, consistent with sustainable development goals,

in support of the work programme agreed through WTO,

while recognizing the importance of maintaining the integrity

of both sets of instruments”;1(emphasis added);

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2. “[E]encourage efforts to promote cooperation on trade,

environment and sustainable development...between the

secretariats of WTO [the World Trade Organization, the

leading intergovernmental organization responsible for

regulating international trade], UNCTAD [the United Na-

tions Conference on Trade and Development, which assists

developing and least-developed countries with integrating

into the WTO multilateral trading system], UNDP [the

United Nations Development Program, which assists devel-

oping countries with issues of governance and poverty reduc-

tion], UNEP [the United Nations Environment Program,

which assesses global environmental conditions, develops

multilateral environmental agreements, and integrates eco-

nomic development and environmental protection] and other

relevant international environmental and development and

regional organizations;”2

3. “[S]trengthen cooperation among UNEP and other United

Nations bodies and specialized agencies, the Bretton Woods

institutions and WTO, within their mandates.”3

The principle of mutual supportiveness, identified in paragraph 98 of

the Plan, is based on the assumption that the overall objective of envi-

ronmental and trade legal regimes is the same, namely, the improve-

ment of the human condition by protecting human, animal, and plant

life and health.

As the largest trading nation in the world, the United States is

uniquely placed to influence the WTO trade and sustainable develop-

ment agenda in a positive way. The United States is, for example, a

leading advocate for prohibiting harmful fisheries subsidies. It is

also committed to safeguarding the integrity of both sets of interna-

tional obligations at issue—those in the WTO and those in the multi-

lateral environmental agreements (MEAs) to which the United

States is a party.4

Trade and the Environment: The WTO

In anticipation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development

at Johannesburg, in 2001 the WTO launched the Doha Development

Agenda, popularly known as the Doha Round, and at its biennial min-

isterial conference issued the following declaration regarding sustain-

able development:

384 AGENDA FOR A SUSTAINABLE AMERICA