Guest blogger Caroline Dommen offers her views on how human rights can help define priorities for the governance of global trade.
Developing countries have been struggling for years to have their trade-related concerns recognized and acted on by their developed country counterparts. In parallel, civil society groups have been calling attention to ways in which international trade policy can go counter to development, sustainability, and equity objectives.
The current financial crisis, following close on the heels of the food crisis, reveals structural problems with the global economic system. Governments have reduced their regulatory role, leaving many elements of the system to private actors. Whilst some people have profited handsomely from new trading opportunities opened up by technological advances and by liberalization policies, others have suffered.
