University of Sussex
Browse

Sustainable development in the WTO: from mutual supportiveness to balancing

Download (505.52 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 15:52 authored by Emily LydgateEmily Lydgate
The WTO Secretariat describes sustainable development as a central WTO principle. Relevant international law treaties have declared sustainable development’s mutual supportiveness with trade liberalization, and also emphasized the need to balance its ‘pillars’: economic development, often equated with trade liberalization, with environmental conservation and social welfare. While ‘mutual supportiveness’ suggests that sustainable development’s environmental and social goals are a side effect of trade liberalization, ‘balancing’ involves weighing these different goals, and prompts the difficult question of which are most important, and who is empowered to decide. This paper traces these two broad theoretical conceptions through WTO legal texts, negotiations and dispute settlement, arguing that they have important pragmatic implications. In particular, to create mutual supportiveness WTO Director-General, Pascal Lamy, has stated the need for adequate domestic policies, suggesting that the WTO should support these. Yet, if they have negative trade impacts, pure ‘sustainable development’ policies may be difficult to balance against the WTO obligation to liberalize trade.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

World Trade Review

ISSN

1474-7456

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Issue

4

Volume

11

Page range

621-639

Department affiliated with

  • Law Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-09-20

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2013-10-31

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2013-09-20

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC