Sustainable Development and Trade Treaties

Abstract

Traditionally, international trade regulation has focused on the liberalization of exchanges and has paid little attention to labour and environmental aspects of production processes and methods in the countries of origin. Currently, there is evidence of the need to integrate sustainable development more intensively into trade agreements. This study examines various initiatives promoted in this regard in: the multilateral and plurilateral trade negotiations undertaken within the framework of the World Trade Organization, which have so far produced scant results; preferential trade agreements, which currently usually include chapters on sustainable development, including numerous provisions on labour and environment; and through unilateral measures that condition imports of products based on their processes and production methods at origin, whose compatibility with current international trade regulations sometimes raises much controversy