THE WTO AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Sanjay Pradhan
Trade is not the enemy of sustainable development. In fact, trade boosts economic growth and makes it easier for countries to specialize in activities where they have an advantage, i.e. activities that they do the most efficiently using the least resources. Poverty, on the other hand, is one of the main causes of environmental degradation. Trade, by boosting growth, can help reduce poverty and break this vicious circle. Countries with open economics often have higher standards of living and high environmental standards, whereas closed economics tend to be poorer and have worse environmental records. Trade liberalization in areas such as environmental goods and services makes clean technologies more widely available and at lower price.
Sustainable development is one of the objectives of the World Trade Organization. Trade has a key role to play in poverty alleviation. So WTO activities can make a contribution to sustainability within the framework of the committee on Trade and Environment and the Committee on Trade and Development, both of which have been given the role of overseeing the DDA negotiations to ensure the outcome Is conducive to sustainable development. The WTO is also a key player in the integrated framework for the least developed countries, which offers the LDCs a comprehensive approach to integrating trade into their national development policies and poverty reduction strategies.
In the first section, the present paper defines sustainable development, discuss its importance and its relationship to trade and environment. In section two, it then examines the WTOs role in and impact on sustainable development and the environment. Following this, the paper in section three presents the WTOs influence on trade and its relate to Sustainable Development and Environment. Finally, the paper concludes that while the WTO has trade progress in bringing the environment and sustainable development into the mainstream of WTO work there is considerable room for improvement.