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Paper No. (13)

From Seattle to Doha: The Environmental Portfolio of the WTO:

This paper discusses and analyzes the environmental chapter of the World Trade Organization, by following up on the predisposition to support globalization, as was apparent in Seattle during the 3rd Ministerial Conference of the WTO, through to the 4th Conference in November 2001, in Doha.

The paper explains the link between trade, the environment and development, and illustrates the work tactic of the World Trade Center, and the major economic, development, health, and environmental criticism directed at it by the developing countries and the non-governmental organizations in the north and south. It also describes the major dangers posed by the liberation of global trade on the environment and on sustainable development, and presents the issues that were at the heart of the disaccord during the Doha Conference, in addition to discussing the final statements and the impact of the recommendations on the relationship between trade and the environment.

The paper also stresses the importance of the Doha Ministerial Conference, which industrial countries insisted on convening despite growing fears following the September 11th events, in order to launch a new round of the negotiations related to the liberation of trade. The paper also illustrates the conflict in opinions between industrial countries and developing ones on issues that were discussed and the draft of the final statement.

The paper then goes on to show the differences in the stance of the European Union, developing countries, the United States of America and the NGOs in the North and South, on the issue of including environment in negotiations related to the liberation of trade, which illustrates that this issue is normally used as a bargaining chip by all the parties to make deals and gain support for their other demands, like those related to investment, agriculture, and intellectual property among others.

Finally, this paper also presents an analysis of the concept of environment in the Ministerial Declaration of the final statement of the Conference and the extent of its impact on future negotiations related to the liberating of trade.

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