The Limits of Addressing Sustainable Development in the WTO Regime

Abstract

This chapter briefly discusses the observation that sustainable development is now firmly embedded in the World Trade Organization (WTO) legal regime, as an objective, but the implication for this commitment remains contested as WTO members have differing views on sustainable development. Beyond the recognition of the interpretive value as part of the ‘object and purpose’ of the WTO Agreements, there has been little progress to date at the global level in finding and agreeing on specific mechanisms by which integration of environmental and social development priorities might be secured at the WTO. There is also very little space for actual cooperation on trade-related aspects of environmental or development law and policy, addressing the second tension detailed in Sections 1 and 2, and there is as yet very little progress in enhancing trade in more sustainable goods and services, though Doha negotiations continue. The chapter also discusses how it is not yet clear, in the WTO, what specific provisions and measures could be enacted to use trade to actually support sustainable development, or what additional cooperation might be undertaken by the WTO on trade-related environmental concerns, or on trade-related social issues.