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Books > Business & Economics > Economics > International economics > International trade > Trade agreements & tariffs
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The WTO, Agriculture and Sustainable Development (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R4,652
Discovery Miles 46 520
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The WTO, Agriculture and Sustainable Development (Hardcover)
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Despite the Doha declaration of November 2001, the failure to start
a new round of global trade negotiations at Seattle in December
1999 and the hostility of protesters to the trade liberalization
process and growing global economic and social disparities was a
wake-up call for the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The ambitious
goal of this ground-breaking book is to identify the strengths and
weaknesses of liberalized world trade, in particular in the
agricultural sector, and to investigate to what extent the current
WTO agreements provide the necessary fail-safe devices to react to
trade-related negative impacts on sustainability, environmental
protection and food security. The background and interrelationship
between the WTO, the tenets of sustainable development and the
unique features of the agriculture and forestry sectors are
explored, and conclusions regarding the deficits of the world trade
system and its conflicts with basic societal goals - such as
sustainability - are drawn. Agriculture and forestry have a
particular affinity with what the authors call "strong
sustainability" and are to be among the major agenda items in
forthcoming WTO negotiations. The book proposes that sustainable
agricultural production techniques such as integrated and organic
farming provide a series of related services to community and
environment which could be severely prejudiced by wholesale trade
liberalization and the imposition of the large-scale production
methods of the mega-trade giants of the USA and Europe. And yet the
concept of sustainability is referred to only tangentially in the
existing WTO agenda. The WTO, Agriculture and Sustainable
Development argues that, without a formal recognition of this
failing, the premise that free trade is inherently advantageous for
all countries is a falsehood. Further, unfettered liberalization is
unsustainable and a social and environmental multilateral framework
must be agreed to reinterpret or adapt a host of WTO regulations
that are at odds with sustainable development. The core problem is
that, under the current system, import duties can only be
differentiated by direct goods and services and not by their means
of production - sustainable or otherwise. Therefore, a range of
environmental policy measures in the agricultural sector, such as
the consideration of product life-cycles, the internalization of
external costs and a coupling of trade liberalization with
ecological obligations are proposed by the authors. In addition,
they argue that unsustainable economic short-termism must be curbed
and the use of the stick of trade sanctions and the carrot of
financial benefits for good environmental performance be permitted
to promote sustainable agricultural practices. This book will
contribute greatly in addressing the lack of basic theoretical
arguments at the intersection between trade and sustainable
development - a failing that has already been bemoaned by trade
policy-makers. It is highly recommended reading for all those
involved or interested in the WTO negotiations, whether from
multilateral organizations, governments, industry or civil society.
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