UWI think tank in global trade reform push

In a collaborative effort with a University of the West Indies think tank, a group of prominent international policy experts have unveiled a comprehensive reform agenda for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the global trading system. 

The initiative, co-led by Dr Jan Yves Remy, the Director of the Shridath Ramphal Centre at UWI Cave Hill, aims to bolster action on climate change and align with the world community’s commitment to achieving a sustainable future.

The release of this reform agenda, known as the Villars Framework for a Sustainable Trade System, is timed to coincide with the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit now on in New York City. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has revealed that the global progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is currently on track for only 15 per cent of the SDG targets while some nations are even regressing on critical goals.

The Remaking Global Trade for a Sustainable Future Project is the brainchild of a diverse consortium of trade and sustainability thought leaders. This consortium includes the Shridath Ramphal Centre at the University of the West Indies, the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, and Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Together, they have devised a roadmap for restructuring the international trade system. This roadmap pledges to advance progress across all 17 of the SDGs, encompassing crucial aspects such as addressing climate change, eradicating poverty, safeguarding biodiversity, fostering a clean energy future, preserving the oceans, bolstering agriculture systems, securing freshwater sources, fortifying supply chains, reducing waste, and progressing towards a circular economy.

Dr Remy elucidated the rationale behind this initiative: “People and governments across the world expect the WTO to reinforce and not undermine the global community’s commitments to climate change progress and sustainable development.”  She stressed that without increased ambition, financial support, and heightened global action, many developing countries, particularly small island states, will struggle to combat the devastating effects of climate change and fulfil the promise of the SDGs.

The formulation of the Remaking Trade reform agenda emerged from a series of 10 workshops addressing various topics, including climate change, the just transition to clean energy, oceans and the emerging Blue Economy, as well as the social dimensions of sustainability encompassing poverty, labour rights, worker impacts, public health, and gender. These workshops, held in cities worldwide, involved over 400 representatives from environmental NGOs, think tanks, businesses, and international organisations, including the WTO, UN Conference on Trade and Development, UN Environment Programme, and International Trade Centre.

The agenda, first introduced at the WTO’s Public Forum in Geneva, underwent refinement at a High-Level Summit Meeting for a Sustainable Trade System in Villars, Switzerland. This summit brought together more than 100 officials from trade ministries, environment and climate change agencies, environmental NGOs, academic policy centres, think tanks, and businesses.

The Villars Framework for reform encompasses several key elements:

1. Commitment to Net-Zero Emissions: WTO members are urged to commit to establishing a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions trade system by mid-century, aligning with the overarching goal of the 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact.

2. Restructuring Subsidies: A fundamental restructuring of the WTO’s approach to subsidies is proposed, with a focus on evaluating whether government support promotes or hinders sustainability and whether it distorts trade.

3. Environmental Standards: The WTO would take action to ensure that entities cannot gain a competitive advantage in global markets by disregarding environmental standards or sustainability obligations, including movement toward net-zero emissions.

4. Just Transition: Strategies to facilitate just transitions for developing nations, including incentives for investment, dedicated funding for cutting-edge technologies and projects, innovation strategies, and capacity-building programs, are promoted to help these nations meet emerging sustainability standards and succeed in global markets.

5. Promoting Sustainability: The agenda advocates for the promotion of sustainability-enhancing goods, services, and technologies through WTO negotiations.

6. WTO Governance Reforms: Advancements in WTO governance are proposed to enable more agile decision-making in the trade system to address contemporary needs effectively.

Professor Dan Esty of Yale University, a project co-leader, stressed the significance of reorienting the WTO to promote sustainable development: “Regearing the WTO to deliver on its mandate to promote sustainable development represents a critical point of leverage for meeting the world community’s net-zero emissions goal.”

“Around the world, people and governments have lost faith in the WTO in recent decades,” said Joel Trachtman, a project co-leader and professor of International Law at The Fletcher School, who expressed hope that the Villars Framework offers a chance to revitalize the global trade system “with a core focus on sustainability and new priorities that offer the promise of rebuilding public and political support for the WTO”. 

(BT/PR)