The WTO and Sustainable Development

Paper Summary:

The World Trade Organization is an important international organization. It has however failed to address questions of reducing poverty, promoting livelihoods and preserving the environment.
The paper examines whether WTO is inherently hostile to sustainable development or whether it can be reformed to further the cause of sustainable development. It concludes that this is not beyond the realms of possibility but would need the richer nations to espouse the cause. The WTO would need a lot of change especially attitudinal if it is to achieve the Utopia of placing sustainability concerns at the top.

From the Paper:

"The WTO has not addressed questions of how increasing trade can reduce poverty in Third World countries (particularly when the trade is often one way). It has not addressed issues of loss of jobs due to opening up of imports. It has not promoted any agreements on redistribution of the supposed benefits of trade to lessen inequalities. It is yet to address the ecological dangers of oversupply bolstered by subsidies. It has not taken up issues like relocation of polluting industries to the Third World countries, the ills of consumerism, currency instability or the general issue of environmental protection."

More papers on The WTO and Sustainable Development:

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• Analytical Essay # 129612 : "Linkages between Environment and Trade"

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