Trade, transition paths, and sustainable economies

The main criticisms of trade from a sustainability viewpoint are that it accelerates resource depletion and pollution, harms income distribution both locally and internationally, and undermines democratic institutions. After considering the relationship between trade and "sustainability," this paper discusses a number of feedback mechanisms which promote the kind of trade that is more sustainable - for the South as well as the North. The role of technological change, a model of the relationship between production and "sustaining services," data needs and research priorities are also discussed

EQUITY, ECONOMIC SCALE, AND THE ROLE OF EXCHANGE IN A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY

This paper explores these theoretical and practical issues, considering the question of the environmental and ecological impacts of economic activity from the viewpoint of the scale at which this activity takes place and the exchanges across time and space which affect its sustainability. Following a consideration of the dynamics of economic change in the next section, the paper discusses the meaning of trade/exchange, economic scale, and political/ecological/economic boundaries before returning in the final section to the two equity-related issues outlined above.This research was supported by the International Development Research Centr

An oligopolistic theory of regional trade agreements

Why are trade agreements regional? I address this question in a model of oligopoly featuring product variety. Tarifs have the effect of manipulating a country's terms of trade and shifting profits towards the domestic market at the expense of foreign trade partners. Countries endogenously form into regional trade agreements or global free trade in a framework where any agreement must be sustained by repeated interaction. A crucial parameter determining the degree of regionalism is product variety. I demonstrate that for a given trade cost and discount factor, increases in product variety leads to greater scope for global free trade relative to regional trade agreements

Agriculture, the EC and the WTO:a legal critical analysis of the concepts of sustainability and multifunctionality

The agricultural policies of the member states of the EC has for many years now been controlled from Brussels under the Common Agricultural Policy. In recent years the CAP has, together with other policies of the EC, been refocused from crop production support to a European Rural policy, with the term "sustainability" being written into many policy documents. This term has achieved international recognition, and the definition used by the Brundt Land commission has been widely accepted, as evidenced by its use in OECD documentation. While the term "sustainability" has been written into WTO texts, the robustness of the term is questionable. The question then arises as to the legal interaction of WTO texts and Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements, which do have "sustainability" as their core philosophy. A new term has entered the regional and global debate in the policy area of agriculture, that of "multifunctionality". The EC is increasingly defining agriculture as being multifunctional. This term has yet to be clearly defined at and EC level, however the OECD has done some work in this area. How the Millenium round of WTO negotiations reacts to the term "multifunctionality" will have an important impact on the EC's Common Agricultural Policy

The sustainable society

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World Agriculture Organization (WAO): New Global Governance for Agricultural Trade

It is increasingly questionable whether the WTO regime is the most appropriate form of governance for addressing global problems related to agriculture. In particular, climate change, sustainability, hunger/poverty in developing countries, and expected imbalance in food demand-supply by 2050 are emerging as grave challenges to humanity and the WTO is still struggling to resolve issues (related to the multifunctional roles of agriculture) of the 20th century while completely lacking the capacity to tackle such new global issues of the 21st century. Given this outmoded institution, the primary objective of this article is to propose that a new system of governance is needed so as to exclusively and effectively deal with problems arising from the interactions among climate change, agricultural sustainability, food security, and trade.Global public goods, climate change, sustainable agriculture, food security, WTO, agricultural trade, International Relations/Trade,

Local Economies, Trade, and Global Sustainability

Bioregional and "ecological economics" theory describes the growth of local economic linkages as vital to move post-industrial economies in the direction of sustainability. This involves expanding local stewardship over environmental and economic resources, so that progressively more production for local needs can be done within the community. Far from existing solely in the realm of theory, this is a pattern which is becoming more and more familiar in many parts of North America and Europe. The blossoming initiatives to create local, community-centred economies can be understood in light of the long history of environmental challenges faced by people living in the industrialized North, and the double economic blows of recession and trade liberalization/globalization exemplified by the passage of GATT and NAFTA and the development of the EC in the 1990s.This paper discusses the dynamic relationship between globalization and local economic development in the North from both theoretical and practical viewpoints. It provides examples from Toronto, Canada of the synergy among environmental awareness, community organizing and "alternative" employment creation (e.g. in environmental remediation and energy conservation activities) which can accompany recession or trade-induced worker layoffs. The resulting local economic patterns tend to be "greener" and more socially sustainable than the globally-tied economic linkages they replace.This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canad

Eco-Friendly Marketing: Beyond the Label

The science is unequivocal: every ecosystem in the world is in decline. Without significant intervention, the world’s inhabitants of almost 7.3 billion are in peril. In light of this imminent threat and as a response to market pressures, public outcry, and changing national and international policies, businesses are seeking to rebrand their products by adopting a more environmentally-friendly approach. From various certification processes to other forms of green marketing, eco-labeling has been trending and consumer engagement rising. But without a thorough analysis of a particular product, the consumer’s belief that he/she is helping to contribute to a solution, may be misplaced

Quarterly Economic Commentary Winter 2019

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