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CISDL
News & Press Releases
Doha
Qatar |
November 13, 2001
How
to assess the trade negotiations?
The last section "Organisation
and Management of the work programme" the draft 4th Ministerial
Declaration proposes a timid attempt to put the goal of sustainable
development into practice for future negotiations. It is stated
that:
The Committee on Trade and Development
and the Committee on Trade and Environment will, within their respective
mandates, each act as a forum to identify and debate developmental
and environmental aspects of the negotiations, in order to help
achieve the objective of having sustainable development appropriately
reflected in the negotiations.
For the first time the WTO would,
if ministers approve this paragraph, evaluate the negotiation of
trade rules and their possible impacts on the environment and development.
The methodology on sustainability impact assessment is still under
discussion but more and more developing countries such as Chile
have gained experience with this new exercise. The new CISDL legal
brief describes the history of integrated assessments and explains
some of its background.
"We recommend that the WTO explores ways for the CTD and the
CTE to cooperate effectively in their potentially new task. Methodologies
of integrated assessments of trade rules, especially those with
a sustainable development approach, could provide solutions for
an effective cooperation," said CISDL Lead Counsel on International
Sustainable Trade Law Markus Gehring in Doha. He can be contacted
in Doha for interviews on the ISDL aspects of the negotiations at
markus@cisdl.org.
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The
Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL)
commission is based in the McGill University Faculty of Law
(founded in Montreal, Canada, in 1849), works in cooperation
with the McGill School of the Environment, the Université
de Montreal Faculty of Law, and the Université de Québec
à Montreal, with guidance from the three Montreal-based
multilateral environmental accords (the NAFTA Commission for
Environmental Cooperation, the UNEP Biodiversity Convention,
and the Montreal Protocol multilateral fund). Its mission
is to promote sustainable societies and the protection of
ecosystems by advancing the understanding, development and
implementation of international sustainable development law.
Contact Information:
Commission Member and Lead Counsel for
Sustainable Trade, Investment and Competition Law
Markus Gehring (markus@cisdl.org),
please contact per email here in Doha, calls
back.
Centre for International Sustainable Development
Law (www.cisdl.org)
3661 Peel St. Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1X1 Canada
Tel: 001 514 398 8918
Fax 001 514 398 8197
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