Rebuilding Global Trade: Proposals for a Fairer, More Sustainable Future
Short Essays on Trade and Global Economic Governance
Edited by Carolyn Deere Birkbeck and Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz
As G20 leaders work to promote effective, coordinated responses to the global economic crisis, the state of global trade and the future of the multilateral trading system must not be neglected. Around the world, governments face domestic pressures to retreat from the rules-based trading system they have designed and to protect industries and jobs under threat.
In the context of the crisis, the immediate focus of many governments and trade experts is rightly to stop the collapse of global trade, complete a development-friendly Doha Round, improve surveillance to discourage new trade barriers, boost Aid for Trade, and ensure access to trade finance on reasonable terms, particularly for developing countries. But just as the G20 leaders’ ongoing work on global finance combines immediate responses to the crisis with forward-looking efforts to restructure the rules that govern the financial system, so too we need to think and act now on the rules, institutions and reforms needed to better govern world trade. Actions taken now will set the stage for how well governments address the host of enduring and emerging challenges the multilateral trade system faces – from making progress on the Millennium Development Goals to addressing sustainable development priorities such as the collapse of global fish stocks and a global green new deal to protect the world’s climate.
In this compilation, the Global Economic Governance Programme (GEG) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) have gathered short essays from a broad range of scholars and experts around the world to provide proposals on:
- immediate trade priorities in the context of the economic crisis, and
- a forward-looking agenda for global trade governance.
Contributing authors were asked to:
- Propose concrete trade-related actions that G20 leaders should take at their April 2009 London Summit and subsequent meeting
- Consider challenges the multilateral trading system will face in the in the longer term (i.e. 2015) and propose reforms these will demand of global trade governance
- Focus special attention on the needs of developing countries and sustainable development considerations such as poverty reduction, environmental sustainability, and social justice
Importantly, while this compilation is published in the lead up to the G20 leaders’ London Summit, it has a broader audience and purpose: to feed into ongoing debates on the governance of the multilateral trading system and the future of the Doha Round, and to reinforce the case for a full, broad-ranging WTO Ministerial Conference this year.
To view or download the e-book Rebuilding Global Trade: Proposals for a Fairer, More Sustainable Future, please click here. Individual contributions are available below. For further GEG perspectives and research relevant to the Financial Crisis, click here.
Susan Ariel Aaronson, Alas We Are Not All Keynesians Now – this article first appeared on www.voxeu.org
Marcelo de Paiva Abreu, The G20 Agenda, Trade and the Developing World, the GEG Blog
Roberto Bouzas, Global Trade Governance and the G20: The Need for US Leadership, the GEG Blog
Steve Charnovitz, Resist US Protectionism: The Top Trade Priority for the G20, the GEG Blog
Shuaihua Cheng, The Upside of a Downturn: A Chinese Perspective, the GEG Blog
Uri Dadush, Resurgent Protectionism: Risks and Possible Remedies - this first appeared as a Policy Outlook from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and also in a joint publication for the G20 by the Royal Institute for International Affairs and the Atlantic Council
Carolyn Deere, From Crisis Management to Sustainable Development: Why We Need a WTO Ministerial Conference This Year, the GEG Blog. For the Portuguese click here.
Caroline Dommen, Governance of Global Trade: How Human Rights Can Help Define Priorities, the GEG Blog
Simon J. Evenett, The Global Economic Crisis, Murky Protectionism, and Developing Countries, the GEG Blog
Kevin P. Gallagher and Timothy A. Wise, Trading Our Way Out of the Financial Crisis: The Need for WTO Reform, the GEG Blog
Arunabha Ghosh, A New Mandate for Monitoring in the Trade System, the GEG Blog
Charles Gore, A Forward Looking Agenda for Global Economic Governance: Trade, Climate, and Inequality, the GEG Blog
Mark Halle, Harnessing Trade for a Global Green Transition, the GEG Blog
Richard Higgott, The Demand for Global Governance: Containing the Spread of the Financial Crisis to the Trade Sector, the GEG Blog
Bernard Hoekman, Trade Policy Challenges After the Food, Fuel, and Financial Crises, the GEG Blog
Richard Kozul-Wright, Trading Places: Why Controlling Finance Should be the Top Priority for Trade Negotiators, the GEG Blog
Lawrence J. Lau, Keeping the Door Open: Options for China and the World, the GEG Blog
Jean-Pierre Lehman, Globalization’s Systemic Shifts and Seismic Shocks: Perspectives for Developing Countries to 2015, the GEG Blog
Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, De-risk and De-carbonise Through Better Governance of Trade, the GEG Blog
Dominique Njinkeu, Africa, Trade and the Crisis: A Stimulus Package for Africa, the GEG Blog
Sylvia Ostry, The Trade System Amidst the Global Financial Crisis, the GEG Blog
T. Ademola Oyejide, Global Economic Governance Priorities for G20 Leaders: An African Perspective, the GEG Blog
Félix Peña, Global Trade Governance and the G20: Opportunities for Developing Countries, the GEG Blog
Dani Rodrik, Let Developing Nations Rule – this article first appeared on www.voxeu.org
Hadi Soesastro, East Asia, the G20, and Global Economic Governance – this article first appeared on www.voxeu.org
Arvind Subramanian, Developing Nations and the New Global Order – this article first appeared on www.voxeu.org
Yash Tandon, A Forward-Looking Agenda for Global Trade Governance and Sustainable Development from a Southern Perspective, the GEG Blog
Robert Wolfe, Use Transparency to Keep World Trade Flowing, the GEG Blog