Adil began his presentation with key arguments that seek to build a case for and probe how trade and environment are linked in the global south. His presentation continued to discuss how various multi lateral discussions on trade and environment have not helped the process move forward as of yet, as mandates such as the Doha development one have been left vague, issues are new to multilateral negotiations and implications have not been fully explored and/or understood and that parties particularly in the south have not fully developed their positions on this subject as well as with many others. He argued further that a lack of proactive push in the South to explore the linkages on this issue as with many others has simply led to trade negotiators in the South being left out of negotiations and agenda setting and merely reduced to playing catch up. A lack of resources, empowerment and networking within and between government, private sector and NGO actors has led to the current situation. A proactive push, as argued by Adil, will likely reduce the amount of suspicion held by the South on trade and environment related issues and result in more of an impetus towards sustainable development.

Capacity Building for Trade and Sustainable Development: Emerging Lessons from the Trade Knowledge Network

David Boyer

International Institute of Sustainable Development, Canada

David's presentation focused on the benefits and lessons learned from Trade Knowledge Networks and how developing nations can learn from each others experiences in sectors such as sustainable agriculture, standards, labeling, market access with regard to organic products, GMOs, shrimp aquaculture and liberalization of electricity and tourism services. He drew from a number of countries to elaborate on the work that the TKN network had accomplished and how in numerous situations had contributed to developing country policy making capacity.

Regional Initiative Required to Implement the Agreements on TBT and SPS and their Provisions

Shaheen Rafi Khan

Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan

South Asian exporters are awakening to the realization that standards setting by northern buyers will have to be proactively met if export levels are to be maintained in the foreseeable future, given MFA and other quota program phase outs. Shaheen's presentation examined the barriers that TBTs and SPS present to South Asian exports in light of harmonization efforts within the WTO and a regional response that could address many of exporters concerns. Issues of quality were elaborated on and a general lack of capacity within South Asia to embrace and become a part of accredited certification auditors and authorities. The presentation concluded with an argument for using the SAARC Secretariat as a platform for launching a South Asia regional partnership for standards setting that would enable developing nations to utilized their capacities and draw from each others comparative advantages in standards setting.

Getting to Green: Overcoming Obstacles to Liberalizing Environmental Goods and Services under the WTO

Annie Dufey, Chile

Annie's presentation focused on the impact that the liberalization of environmental goods (under NAMA) and services (under CTS) as relating to water, wastewater, etc. can have on developing economies. As the WTO doesn't specifically define

what an ESG is, controversy arises from interpretation by northern TNCs in water, for example who wish to access southern municipal and commercial markets. Monopolistic, anti competitive and public good related concerns thereby must compel policy analysts within developing economies to carefully select which of their environmental goods and services sectors that they wish to liberalize.

Policy Interventions at the Fisher Folk and Agrarian Levels to Promote Sustainable Development

Faisal Haq Shaheen

Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan

Faisal's presentation focused on the impact that government policies towards encouraging corporate farming and fisheries development could have on sustainable livelihoods and indigenous efforts to promote sustainable development and trade. A shift towards export led growth with a focus on short term revenue and royalty gains will likely see a shift in resources towards large landlords and trawling companies that currently engage in unsustainable resource management and development. Government policies that emphasize access by poorer segments of society to domestic as well as export markets need to be implemented so as to not only increase the distribution of wealth to poorer segments of society but also to put an emphasis on and develop sustainably resources that are at risk of depletion.

Trade and Investment Linkages with Corporate Social Responsibility

Halina Ward, UK

Halina's presentation on corporate social linkages elaborated on the new trend of socially conscious firms placing an increased emphasis on social responsibility and raising the bar not only on themselves but with their supplier networks. Halina drew the examples of South East Asian economies and sectors that are positioning themselves as socially responsible suppliers so as to capture market share from larger players such as China.

Discussion

Questions that followed the presentations focused on the capacity of a developing country like Pakistan, with low education rates and awareness of corporate activity to press for market niches that appeal to meeting the standards of CSR. Many market sectors are not even aware of or capable of export capacity, leave alone identifying niches. It was agreed that more awareness needs to take place not only at the community and public levels, but also at the firm level. Discussions also focused on government policy towards more corporate based activity and how this would hinder the development of domestic economic bases and indigenous sectors. It was also agreed that more SAARC cooperation was necessary even though signs pointing towards such cooperation are volatile and unpredictable even in the best of times.

Report by Faisal Shaheen