World Trade Organization - Harvard Model United Nations

World Trade 

Organization 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Introduction 4 

History Of The Committee 4 

Topic A 5 

Topic B 13 

Position Paper Requirements 22 

Closing Remarks 22 

Bibliography 24 

Topic A: 

Topic B: 

Building Trade Capacity 

Trade and the Environment 

Statement of the Problem 

History of the Problem 

Current Situation 

Relevant Actions 

Proposed Solutions 

Questions a Resolution Must Answer 

Bloc Positions 

Suggestions for Further Research 

5 

5 

8 

10 

11 

12 

12 

13 




Relevant Actions 


Questions a Resolution Must Answer 



13 

14 

16 

20 

21 

21 

21 

22 

General Assembly 


1

World Trade Organization 

Harvard Model United Nations 2011 

Dear Delegates, 

Alexander N. Barrett 

Secretary-General 

Anusha Tomar 

Director-General 

Kevin Lee 

Under-Secretary-General 

Administration 

Julia S. Howland 


Business 

Stephanie Oviedo 

Comptroller 

Christopher D. Coey 


Substantive Support 

Erfan Soliman 



Jonathan K. Yip 


Economic and Social Council 

Hunter M. Richard 


Specialized Agencies 

It is an honor and a privilege to welcome you to the fifty-seventh session of the Harvard 

Model United Nations General Assembly! The General Assembly has occupied a unique 

place in history since its founding, as the only forum in which all nations in the world can 

come together and receive equal representation. It serves as an opportunity for nations 

to discuss questions and crises of the utmost international importance on equal footing. 

The topics that the General Assembly debates reflect the full breadth of issues of concern 

across the globe. Our organ is the most diverse of any United Nations body, and, as such, 

has responsibility beyond what may initially be evident. 

HMUN’s simulation of the General Assembly will be an experience of a lifetime for you 

in many ways. As delegates, you will practice firsthand the foundation of international 

diplomacy and debate, and hone skills that will be vital for years to come, such as the 

ability to compromise, negotiate, and effectively present your ideas in a manner dedicated 

to achieving a solution. As students, you will explore the nuances of some of the most 

complex issues of our day, and look beyond them to devise possible solutions and produce 

resolutions that, in some instances, may contain ideas that are even more effective than 

those presented in the real United Nations. Finally, as global citizens, you will broaden your 

horizons by adopting an international perspective, exchanging ideas, and forging friendships 

with students from across the country and across the world. 

As John F. Kennedy Jr. once said, “One person can change the world, and every person 

should try.” I commend you on embodying this attitude and taking a step toward being such 

a person by choosing to engage with your peers and to discuss problems that have immense 

ramifications. To be able to reap the full benefits of this experience, you should begin 

with this guide and then conduct your own individual research. A successful committee 

experience is dependent in large part on your willingness and readiness to participate. Our 

directors are some of the best that HMUN has ever seen, and I encourage all of you to take 

advantage of their expertise and get to know them both before and during conference. Best 

of luck in your preparations for HMUN, and please do not hesitate to contact me via email 

with any questions or concerns you may have before then. Enjoy the fall and I look forward 

to meeting you in January! 

Sincerely, 

Erfan Soliman 

59 Shepard Street, Box 205 

Cambridge, MA 02138 

Voice: (617)-398-0772 

Fax: (617) 496-4472 

Email: info@harvardmun.org 

www.harvardmun.org 

Erfan Soliman 

Under-Secretary-General for the General Assembly 


274 Kirkland Mail Center 

Cambridge MA, 02138 

soliman@harvardmun.org 

2 

Specialized General Assembly Agencies



Dear Delegates, 

Alexander N. Barrett 

Secretary-General 

Anusha Tomar 

Director-General 

Kevin Lee 


Administration 

Julia S. Howland 


Business 

Stephanie Oviedo 

Comptroller 

Christopher D. Coey 


Substantive Support 

Erfan Soliman 



Jonathan K. Yip 


Economic and Social Council 

Hunter M. Richard 


Specialized Agencies 

It is my distinct pleasure to welcome you to the World Trade Organization at Harvard 

Model United Nations 2011! My name is Damon Meng and I am thrilled to be your 

director. Let me tell you a little about myself. I’m originally from Shanghai, China and I’m 

currently residing in New Jersey. My interest in international relations led me to participate 

in Harvard Model Congress, where I served on the House Foreign Relations Committee 

on multiple occasions during high school. After coming to Harvard, I joined HMUN to 

continue exploring my passion for international relations. 

I am a sophomore at Harvard University concentrating in Economics with a secondary in 

Government. In addition to my education at Harvard, I am currently pursuing Master’s 

Degree in Music through the Harvard New England Conservatory dual degree program. 

At Harvard, aside from Harvard Model United Nations, I help run our college conference, 

Harvard National Model United Nations. I also serve on the Business Board of the Harvard 

Crimson, the Harvard University daily, and write for the Harvard Political Review. 

The topics we will discuss in the World Trade Organization have widespread ramifications 

for the future. The increase in developing countries’ contribution to global trade has had 

significant impact on the environment. How can developing nations build up trade capacity 

in a green and sustainable way? This is just one of the many questions we will try to address. 

The WTO will serve as the forum where nations can gather and forge the foundations and 

agreements that will drive sustainable future growth for developing nations and the world. 

I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas, and I hope you will find these topics engaging 

and thought provoking. 

I encourage you to use this study guide as a starting point, and to deepen your understanding 

of the topics through further research. Please feel free to email me with any questions you 

might have. Good luck, and see you all in January! 

Sincerely, 

Damon Meng 

Damon Meng 

Director, World Trade Organization 


wto@harvardmun.org 

59 Shepard Street, Box 205 

Cambridge, MA 02138 

Voice: (617)-398-0772 

Fax: (617) 496-4472 

Email: info@harvardmun.org 

www.harvardmun.org 


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INTRODUCTION 

The World Trade Organization faces numerous traderelated 

issues. While many of these issues have been 

regarding economic development, more non-traditional 

concerns have begun to emerge in the past two decades. 

In this session of the WTO, we will discuss two of these 

topics. 

The first topic is “Trade and the Environment.” 

Concern of the environment is one of the core elements 

of the WTO’s mandate. With the intensity of debate 

regarding the environment heating up throughout the 

world, trade has come to the center. The impact of 

trade on the environment is substantial. Think about 

the hundreds of thousands of ships, planes, and trains 

that transport goods across the world. Massive amounts 

of energy are needed to fuel these machines; with more 

energy production comes a greater impact on the 

environment. With the entrance of the WTO into the 

environmental debate, the number 

of issues that need to be addressed 

has increased. Some argue that 

WTO’s trade regulations have led 

to the decline of environmental 

health while others claim that trade 

liberalization helps promote sustainable development. 

But the issue is much more complex. The WTO’s trade 

regulations and decisions have the potential of conflicting 

with multilateral environmental agreements and have 

numerous legal aspects that need to be more carefully 

thought out. 

The second topic is “Aid for Trade.” Liberalization 

in trade has not benefited every country. Low-income 

and least-developed countries suffer from severe supply 

side constraints that result in low export and low 

trade capacities. These countries need to develop their 

infrastructure and human capital systems so that they 

may enter the global value chains. Developing countries 

must be able to produce the high quantity and quality 

levels demanded by other markets. They must also ensure 

that they have the physical capacity to manufacture 

goods that conform to various national and international 

standards. However, only building up the infrastructural 

aspects of the manufacturing sector is not enough. 

Developing countries also need a better understanding of 

the growing complexities of world trade regulations. The 

faster their trade capacity grows, the quicker they must 

learn the subtleties of international trade agreements. 

“These issues are of upmost 

importance to you, members of the 

WTO, because trade issues are at 

the heart of the organization...” 

These issues are of upmost importance to you, 

members of the WTO, because trade issues are at the 

heart of the organization. The WTO establishes the 

institutional and legal framework for the world trade 

system, so every decision has wide and far-reaching 

implications. Please study these issues well and note any 

areas you would like to explore more in detail. The most 

effective resolutions will not only include the concepts 

introduced in this guide but also more in-depth research 

that reflects the nuances of these trade debates. 

HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE 

The World Trade Organization is an international 

organization dedicated to the liberalization of trade, 

a forum for governments to debate and negotiate 

trade agreements, and a place where countries come 

to resolve their trade disputes. The laws of the World 

Trade Organization make up the institutional and legal 

framework of the international 

trading system and supersede almost 

all national or regional trade laws. 

There are currently 153 member 

countries and 31 observers in the 

WTO, as well as several international 

intergovernmental organizations 

like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the 

World Health Organization, Organization of American 

States, and the UN food program, which have observer 

status as well. 

The World Trade Organization traces its roots to 1947 

with the signing of the General Agreement on Tariffs and 

Trade (GATT), the dominant institutional framework for 

the international trading system for the second half of the 

20th century. The main accomplishment of the GATT 

was substantial reduction of tariffs and trade barriers 

and the elimination of preferences. Each country was 

obligated to grant most favored nation status to all other 

contracting parties. This did not mean free trade. What 

this meant was that a country cannot give preferential 

trade treatments in areas such as tariffs to one member of 

the WTO and not to another. Tariffs were still legal but 

they had to be relatively similar across countries, with a 

few exceptions. The GATT also prohibited quantitative 

restrictions on imports and exports and tried to promote 

trade in developing countries. Most of these agreements 

were solidified during the eight rounds of trade talks that 

focused on settling trade disputes and negotiating trade 

agreements. 

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However, the GATT had problems, the most 

serious being that it was only a “gentlemen’s agreement.” 

Members that did not follow GATT rules could not be 

punished because the dispute and penalty system was 

not completely established. Furthermore, the GATT 

failed to liberalize trade in agricultural products and 

many agreements were inconsistent with domestic laws. 

The members of the GATT realized the severity of the 

problems. Consequently, in 1994 during the Uruguay 

Round, the members ratified the “Marrakech Agreement 

Establishing the World Trade Organization.” 

The World Trade Organization improved upon the 

flaws of the GATT and continues to promote trade 

liberalization, economic development and reform, and 

improve people’s welfare. One improvement was in 

expanded jurisdiction. The WTO was given the power 

to monitor internal domestic laws, thereby reducing 

national sovereignty. Furthermore, the WTO expanded 

governance into trade in services and foreign investment, 

redefining what international “trade” meant. 

One of the central pillars of the WTO is the dispute 

settlement body. The GATT did not have a dispute 

settlement mechanism and thus could not enforce its 

own trade rules. On the contrary, the WTO’s system 

incentivizes compliance with WTO laws and underscores 

the rule of law. The trading system is thus more stable 

and predictable as a result. 

The World Trade Organization is naturally a 

hierarchical organization that involves all of its members. 

The highest authority is the Ministerial Conference, which 

is composed of representatives of all WTO members and 

meets every two years to ratify major trade agreements 

and reforms. The General Council runs the day to day 

operations of the organization and convenes in two forms: 

the General Council as the Dispute Settlement Body and 

the General Council as the Trade Policy Review Body. Six 

other bodies report to the General Council: the Council 

in Trade in Goods, the Council in Trade in Services, 

the Council in Trade-related Intellectual Property, the 

Committee on Trade and Development, the Committee 

of Balance of Payments, and the Committee on Budget. 

Under each committee or council are multiple working 

groups and working parties that deal with each specific 

trade negotiation. 

The Ministerial Conference and the bodies under the 

General Council are the major decision making powers 

of the WTO. The Secretariat of the WTO, consisting 

of over 600 staff members, has no such power and only 

supplies technical and professional support, monitors 



and researches developments in the trading system, and 

provides information to the public. 

Thanks to the international system that the GATT 

and the WTO have established, countless countries have 

benefited from increased trade and more cooperation. 

However, there are many challenges still facing the WTO. 

How the WTO address these challenges will provide new 

directions for the development of the world trade system. 

TOPIC A: BUILDING TRADE CAPACITY 

Statement and History of the Problem 

Aid for Trade is a whole new approach to aid for 

developing countries. Ever since colonial times, most aid 

was in the form of loans. Up until World War II, aid was 

a bilateral affair between the donor country and recipient 

country, and there was almost no cooperation between 

nations in dealing out aid. After WWII, international 

cooperation in aid for development emerged. Multilateral 

financial institutions like the World Bank and the 

International Monetary Fund began dealing out loans 

in a more systematic, coordinated manner. Most money 

was towards helping countries industrialize and begin 

manufacturing cheap goods for developed countries. In 

the 1970s, a more human approach was incorporated 

into aid. A new trend emerged in development that 

focused much more on social issues like poverty, health, 

education, and income inequality. But by the 1990s, 

countries realized that more needed to be done if 

developing countries and least developed countries were 

to make significant economic progress. 1 

Instead of giving money to solve social problems or 

help the country industrialize, the aid for trade initiative 

makes trade one of the centerpieces of economic growth 

strategies for developing countries. Because years of 

underdevelopment have resulted in low trade capacities 

for many developing countries, the initiative seeks to 

build trade capacity through the elimination of “supplyside” 

constraints. These include the reduction of external 

trade barriers, assisting developing countries with costs 

associated with integrating into the world economy 

(adjustment costs), and elimination of internal barriers 

like poor infrastructure, inadequate financing, and 

excessive red tape. 2 

Trade is the foundation on which the WTO is 

founded on, and thus it is natural for the Organization 

to play an important role in how this new initiative is 

planned and executed. The WTO must monitor the 

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initiative at the global level, the donor level, and the 

recipient country level, ensuring that differences in 

priorities are reconciled so that aid for trade programs 

can be as effective as possible. 

This initiative is the brainchild of the WTO, and 

represents the core of the WTO. The success of this 

initiative means sustainable economic growth for 

developing countries, leading to improved health and 

education, alleviation of poverty, and improved standards 

of living. The WTO will be one step closer to fulfilling 

its stated mission if Aid for Trade 

can successfully revolutionize aid to 

developing countries. 

Emergence of Aid for Trade 

Aid for Trade first emerged as an 

issue at the Doha Development Round, 

one of the WTO’s trade-negotiation 

rounds that began in 2001. Although 

the issue became prominent only in the 

past decade, the underlying problems 

that led to a discussion of Aid for Trade 

are traced back to the Uruguay Round, 

WTO’s 1986 trade-negotiation 

round. The Uruguay Round was a 

comprehensive re-evaluation of all the 

original GATT articles and sought to 

extend the trading system into new 

areas including trade in services and 

in intellectual property. Participating 

countries also discussed reforms in 

agriculture and textiles. The theme of the Round was 

trade liberalization and many commentators believed 

that liberalizing trade would provide significant benefits 

for all, especially developing countries, and assumed that 

it could not be harmful. 3 

While the Uruguay Round created an international 

trade dispute settlement system, the Trade Policy Review 

Mechanism (which provided for the first systematic, 

comprehensive, and regular review of national trade 

policies of GATT members), and a built-in agenda that 

set timelines for further negotiations, it also created 

new problems. Complaints emerged from developing 

countries about the high costs of compliance to 

international rules about intellectual property and stricter 

customs rules. 4 

After the signing of the Uruguay Round Agreement, 

Africa trade ministers meeting in Tunis in October 1994 

urged the international community for more cooperation 

The Doha Development Round started 

in 2001 and continues today. 

and help in creating trade policies that would promote 

trade and economic growth and help them integrate into 

the new Multilateral Trading System. The WTO, United 

Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the 

International Trade Center responded by establishing the 

Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Program (JITAP), a 

trade capacity-building program. 5 

JITAP 

The JITAP’s three objectives are: “build national capacity 

to understand the evolving MTS and its implications for 

external trade; adapt the national trading 

system to the obligations and disciplines of 

the new MTS; seek maximum advantage from 

the new MTS by enhancing the readiness of 

exporters.” To accomplish these, the three 

Geneva organizations set up an elaborate system 

of technology, human, and communication 

power. These include: 1) national networks 

of trainers and experts in WTO-trade 

related issues that would advise low- and 

middle-income countries on policymaking; 

2) “Internet-based Communication and 

Discussion Facility” that would lower the cost 

of communication between countries and 

the Geneva organizations; 3) simultaneous 

implementation of programs in several 

countries to maximize efficient use of 

resources through large scale management 

implementations. 6 

The Integrated Framework 

In 1996, the WTO took further steps to strengthen 

least-developed countries’ trade capacities through the 

creation of the Integrated Framework for Trade-Related 

Technical Assistance to the Least Developed Countries. 

The Integrated Framework is a multi-agency, multi donor 

program assisting least developed countries (LDCs) that 

“supports LDC governments in trade capacity building 

and integrating trade issues into overall national 

development strategies” (IF website). By bringing together 

various agencies and LDCs, the IF ensures a coordinated 

approach to tackling the most pressing trade-related 

issues of the LDCs. (IF explained). The core agencies of 

the IF are the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the 

International Trade Centre (ITC), the United Nations 

Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), 

the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 

the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization 

(WTO). 7 

6 


The Integrated Framework consists of four parts: 

1) Raises awareness of the importance of trade in 

development among LDCs; 2) LDCs participate in a 

Diagnostic for a Trade Integration Strategy (DTIS) to 

identify constraints on trade, areas for improvement 

and growth, and a plan of action for integrating into 

the world trading system; 3) Integrate the IF plan with 

that of the national development plan; 4) implementing 

the plan with the help of developed partners. The plans 

usually involve making trade policy the core of the 

national development plans and the delivery of trade 

related assistance from the development partners and 

agencies to the LDCs. These steps aim to incorporate 

trade related assistances into the dialogue between LDC 

governments and development partners/agencies. 8 

As of August 2010, 35 LDCs have validated their 

diagnostic studies and 1 country, Equatorial Guinea, is 

now going through technical review before embarking 

onto the third stage of the IF process. It will take several 

more years before sufficient evidence will be available to 

judge the effectiveness of IF. 9 

The Integrated Framework is significant because it 

shows that despite major trade reforms, countries still face 

many supply-side constraints that can only be tackled with 

“coordinated, integrated, and demand-driven responses” from 

the international community. 10 

Doha Development Agenda 

On November 14, 2001, participants in the Doha 

Development Round issued the Doha Ministerial 

Declaration. The Declaration emphasized the need for 

greater trade-related technical assistance and capacity 

building for developing countries (WTO trapo). In 

February 2005, the G-7 Ministers called on the World 

Bank and IMF to develop proposals that would further 

give technical assistance to developing countries so 

that they could better adjust to trade liberalization 

and integrate themselves in the world market (WTO 

Tratop). Consequently, in December 2005, the Aid 

for Trade Initiative was officially launched at the Hong 

Kong Ministerial Conference. The Conference created 

a WTO work program and a task force to provide 

recommendations on how to proceed with aid for trade. 11 

Why Aid for Trade is Needed 

The poor trade performance of the low-income 

countries can be attributed to political and structural 

factors. Civil conflicts and political purges have resulted 

in significant damage to infrastructure and domestic 

social stability, resulting in the withdrawal of foreign 



investments and the emigration of well-educated and 

skilled workers who seek foreign places to safeguard their 

lives and wealth. Furthermore, the commodities-heavy 

characteristics of some low-income countries’ exports 

have made them far too dependent on foreign demand 

for raw goods and have detracted them from investing 

in domestic institutions and infrastructure. Other low 

income countries that export mainly agricultural goods 

face high tariffs and “non-tariff barriers.” 12 

Domestic policies of low-income countries 

also contribute to their poor performance. Poor 

macroeconomic policymaking has led to currency 

overvaluations that reduce the competiveness of domestic 

goods in overseas markets. High tariffs that are meant to 

protect domestic goods from foreign import competition 

have made low-income countries uncompetitive as 

richer countries retaliate with trade-restrictive measures 

against low-income countries. Other policies regarding 

government spending also exacerbate entrenched 

problems. The focus of government spending on the 

export sector means less money for improvements and 

creation of a modern infrastructure system. As a result, 

there are high costs of telecommunications, electricity, 

transportation, which are made inhibitors of economic 

growth. The lack of a strong infrastructure system also 

deters foreign direct investment. 13 

The importance of strong institutions and adequate 

infrastructure is so significant that even if trade 

liberalization measures were pursued, there will not be 

any significant economic growth without the presences 

of those two factors. For example, India is a country that 

has failed to take full advantage of liberalized trade in 

some sectors like horticulture. It has a strong comparative 

advantage in the sector, but is not competitive due to poor 

trade logistics in maritime and air transport. According 

to the IMF, if India could reduce these costs by onefifth 

through better infrastructure and better logistics, 

prices of Indian horticulture goods would be 12 percent 

cheaper in overseas markets, making them much more 

competitive. 14 

Studies have provided evidence suggesting the validity 

of the theories described above. The Diagnostic Trade 

Integration Studies (DTIS) by the Integrated Framework 

for Trade-Related Technical Assistance (which focuses 

on providing resources and policy recommendations for 

least-developed countries) found that exports remained 

slow in some low-income countries despite significant 

trade reform and more macroeconomic stability. One 

of the primary constraints the studies found was on the 

7


supply side (the country that exports the goods, which 

in these cases are the low-income countries). The studies 

recommended improvements in customs and export 

agencies and other trade-related institutions. 15 

When is Aid Effective? The Paris Declaration 

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness sets out 

the principles that nations should follow to maximize 

effectiveness of their aid. These include: 1) ownership 

– the donor country must respect the right and 

responsibility of the partner country to exercise authority 

over its own development policies and strategies; 2) 

alignment – donors will align their assistances as stated 

by the partner country’s own development agenda and 

will try to support the partner country’s own systems 

(regulatory, technological and others) rather than 

developing their own parallel system in the country; 3) 

mutual accountability – donors and partners must be 

committed to mutual accountability and transparency. 

Donors should provide transparent and timely 

information regarding their aid flows to the partner 

countries while partner countries must periodically assess 

the progress in the implementation of development 

strategies; 4) harmonization – donors and partner 

countries will establish common arrangements, simplify 

procedures for policy planning and implementation, and 

share information with each other (making it effective). 

These principles ensure that the partner countries take 

ownership of their own development strategies and that 

donor countries listen to and understand the specific 

needs of each partner country. Giving partner countries 

more say in how their reforms are undertaken will ensure 

greater success rate. 

Effectiveness of aid for trade 

Despite having clear principles that would 

theoretically maximize the effectiveness of aid for trade, 

it is hard to quantify the effects of aid for trade since there 

are no clear indicators of aid for trade’s direct effect on 

economic growth. Some donor countries use indicators 

like the increase in trade volume and “adoption and 

implementation of trade policies that positively impact 

the poor” that are often meaningless because the effects 

of those policies often cannot be achieved or measured 

within the donor aid for trade program’s life cycle. These 

indicators are further influenced by other factors such 

as other donor aid, domestic producers improving trade 

performance through private investments, and domestic 

government policies that help the poor. Thus, it is often 

hard to trace the growth of trade and the economy 

directly to a specific donor’s aid program. 16 

Measuring effectiveness is complicated by the fact 

that it is difficult to measure the positive outcomes 

of these trade-related assistances. For some countries, 

simply changing the government’s mindset about why 

export-related infrastructure is important (when other 

alternatives like subsidies can quickly spur production 

and economic growth) can be a significant achievement. 

For others, changing approach to trade-related assistance 

such as focusing on revising tax and regulatory systems 

can also be an achievement. 17 


South America 

South America has experienced tremendous growth 

within the past decade, driven mostly by a boom in 

prices for the region’s commodities. Countries in South 

America were early in following trade liberalization 

recommendations by the GATT and WTO and 

many have already formed regional trade pacts such 

as the Andean Community (CAN) and MERCOSUR 

economic blocs. These economic blocs have facilitated 

regional cooperation in trade, promoted exports in 

various countries, and led to the creation of trade-related 

institutions in most of the countries. All these factors 

have led to an average of 20% increase in exports between 

2001 and 2005. 18 

South American countries’ main trade challenges 

include the large number of trade negotiations going 

on at same time. Due to the fast pace and large number 

of negotiation meetings, policymakers do not have 

enough time to properly analyze options and seek the 

most optimal solutions. The focus on forming trade 

agreements also takes attention away from government 

support for research & development and improvements 

in regulation for product standards. 19 

Another important issue to be resolved is the lack 

of cohesion between different trade support institutions 

(TSI) throughout the region. The various national, local, 

sectoral, and technical TSIs often have insufficient 

coordination and duplicate functions among themselves. 

As a result, the TSIs can’t optimize the use of their 

resources in helping governments develop regulation in 

such areas as branding, certification, supply chains, and 

design. 20 

8 



West & Central Africa 

West and Central Africa contains many land-locked, 

low-income, and economically stagnant countries that 

have struggled to integrate into the world trading system. 

Due to political instability, many countries have been 

recovering from decades of civil war and face severe 

challenges rebuilding institutions and governments. 

Economically, this region is among the poorest in 

the world. The region’s economy heavily depends on 

commodity exports, with 75% of all exports being oilrelated. 

The lack of diversification in exports makes the 

region especially vulnerable to volatile prices in oil. To 

make matters worse, a combination of weak physical and 

technological infrastructure, deadlocked bureaucracies, 

and weak private sectors prevent these countries from 

reaching their growth potentials. 21 

The area faces low integration in the global economy. 

Most countries in the region do not yet have effective 

strategies for developing trade with developed nations 

and have minimal understanding and awareness of the 

WTO and the rules of the international trading system. 

Thus the challenge lies in how to raise awareness of 

the need for regional and global integration of these 

economies. 

Another challenge for the region is building 

productive trading capacity. Only a few state-owned 

large corporations in the mining sector and a few Small 

and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) dominate the economy. 

Extremely high taxes and stringent government 

regulations discourage entrepreneurship and innovation 

while lax regulations enable the export of low quality 

goods. 

North Africa 

Case Study: Bananas in the Caribbean 

The European Union (EU) introduced the Common 

Organization of the Market in Bananas in 1993 to 

change the tariff/quota regime for banana imports 

to a tariff only regime. This increased competition for 

traditional Caribbean exporters of banana from newer 

African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) banana producers 

like Cameroon and the Ivory Coast. Due to this trade 

liberalization reform and reduction in trade barriers, 

banana exports from the Caribbean islands fell as much 

as 50%. 

In order to aid the 12 traditional ACP banana 

suppliers (which were Belize, Cameroon, Cape Verde, 

Côte d’Ivoire, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Madagascar, 

Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Somalia 


and Suriname), the EU adopted the Special Framework of 

Assistance for Traditional ACP (SFA). The SFA provided 

financing programs to help countries develop production/ 

marketing strategies, obtain market intelligence, and 

create policies promoting the diversification of the 

products. Funding for diversification programs grew from 

about 12% of the total funding in 1999 to about 64% 

in 2004. Although the SFA was a well crafted agreement, 

it did not reach its potential due to poor allocation 

system. The allocation system should have helped smallscale 

banana farmers that would have dropped out of the 

banana market since the small scale of their production 

meant that they were especially sensitive to the drop in 

international prices that resulted from the elimination of 

the quota by the EU. 22 

Numerous banana farmers in St. Vincent abandoned banana 

cultivation. Those who stayed in production were mainly fair trade 

producers. 

Case Study: One Village One Product Initiative 

One successful example of a program that stimulated 

the local economy and made it into an integral part of 

a country’s export is Japan’s “One Village, One Product” 

(OVOP) strategy. The objective of OVOP is to empower 

rural communities so that they can use their comparative 

advantages in local crops to expand, brand, and export 

them for economic growth. OVOP’s origins stem from 

the Oita Prefecture in Japan. Financing and agricultural 

recommendations by the national and local governments 

promoted the production of select goods with high 

added value, resulting in each village in Oita focusing 

on a single, competitive, staple product such as shiitake 

mushrooms and kabosu. In all, the program has created 

a total of 810 products ranging from vegetables to meat 

and fruits, generating a revenue of approximately $US 

1.15 billion in 2004. 23 

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OVOP has had notable success in Malawi. Agriculture 

accounts for 90% of Malawi’s exports but Malawi 

farmers lacked expertise in promoting their goods abroad 

and in growing and managing their farms and businesses. 

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) 

and the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) 

have heavily promoted Malawi’s products to Japanese 

consumers as well as helped it export its goods to 

neighboring countries like Mozambique. The OVOP 

is just one policy in the greater battle to help countries 

build trade capacity through the development of human 

capital and institutions. 24 

Challenges Ahead 

Focusing on Competitiveness 

Countries need to go beyond purely funding 

for economic growth and focus on how to increase 

competitiveness in country growth strategies. Governments 

have only recently begun using policies to address supplyside 

constraints on trade whereas previously, much more 

attention was focused on government subsidies to local 

businesses to incentivize more production of goods that 

result in a slightly higher GDP growth but does nothing 

for the overall, sustainable competitiveness of the country 

in the global trading system. 

First, more focus must be on dealing with the 

incentives to trade. Low-income countries need to 

implement more operational strategies that deal not 

only with lower border barriers like tariffs but also 

the tax system, investment policies, and labor market 

regulations. By having these favorable policies in those 

areas, production of more goods will lead to more profit 

that can be better spent on investments in human and 

capital. Furthermore, governments must focus on 

how to build the service infrastructure (transportation, 

telecommunications, finance) that reduce production 

costs for firms and increase their competitiveness. Lastly, 

these price incentive policies must be complemented 

with proactive policies to promote exports. These policies 

include government assistance in obtaining information 

about export markets and in ensuring that export goods 

are up to the technical and sanitary standards of foreign 

countries. 25 

World Bank and IMF activities 

Lending is a crucial tool of the World Bank and the 

IMF in providing Aid for Trade assistance to developing 

countries. Concessional and non-concessional lending 

that focuses on helping countries bear the cost of making 

their economies more export compatible (building 

infrastructure etc.) has grown from $400 million in 2000 

to more than $1.6 billion 2007. These loans were given to 

42 countries located mostly in Europe, Central Asia, and 

Africa. Most loans were directed at boosting trade-related 

sectors like communications, transportation, regulatory 

systems, finance, energy, and rural development. 26 

The World Bank has also been working closely with 

LDCs to implement programs tailored for each country. 

Help comes in the form of policy advice for countries 

pursuing trade liberalization reforms (such as Ecuador, 

Indian, Iraq, Madagascar) and technical assistance for 

countries applying for WTO membership (such as Russia, 

Ethiopia, and Vietnam). The Bank also gets involved in 

A recent Global Development Debate brought experts together to 

explore ways to better manage capital flows to and from emerging 

economies. 

more local aspects of trade capacity building such as 

promoting learning events and courses on trade in goods 

and services and poverty reduction through trade. 

Aside from lending, the IMF mostly focuses on 

surveillance of trade policies to ensure that LDCs are 

treated fairly in trade negotiations. Furthermore, the 

IMF engages in trade-related research to identify traderelated 

macroeconomic vulnerabilities in countries and 

advises government authorities on how to best address 

them. 27 

Relevant Action 

In addition to the Integrated Framework and the 

JITAP mentioned above there are other recent tradeassistance 

programs that have already begun to achieve 

notable results. 

10 


Program for Building African Capacity for Trade 

(PACT II) 

The Program for Building African Capacity for 

Trade II is an ITC program funded by Canada that 

seeks to “strengthen the support capacity of relevant 

regional and national institutions to enhance the export 

competitiveness, market linkages and, finally, export 

revenues of African SMEs in high-potential sectors.” 

PACT II is the successor to PACT I and focuses much 

more on regional integration and institution building. 28 

One of the most notable PACT II initiatives is 

ACCESS For African Businesswomen in International 

Trade. ACCESS partners with national institutions to 

provide women with business counseling programs, 

networking opportunities, as well as admission to local 

and regional women’s business associations. This program 

has had significant success connecting businesswomen in 

poor countries with similar counterparts in the developed 

world. 29 

Another success story is Ghana’s packing industry. 

Ghana has a comparative advantage in exporting 

produce from the horticulture industry. The ITC PACT 

II established the Institute of Packaging Ghana (IOPG) 

that gave series of seminars and workshops on how to 

effectively package, market the goods to developed 

countries, and follow international regulations on 

packaging. The success of this program in educating 

Ghanaian horticulture producers in packaging had a 

demonstrated effect on the Ghanaian food industry as 

a whole. Increasingly stringent food safety regulations 

have made it more difficult for developing countries to 

compete in certain food products due to higher costs of 

legal compliance and ensuring the hi-quality of products. 

The IOPG has played a crucial part in disseminating 

information to producers, helping them lower the cost 

of obtaining information about international regulations 

and finding more efficient and cost-effective packaging 

techniques for their goods. 30 

USAID and African Growth and Opportunity Act 

The United States Agency for International 

Development (USAID), an independent federal agency 

of the United States, is responsible for providing civilian 

foreign aid to developing countries. Its mission was 

facilitated with the African Growth and Opportunity 

Act of 2000, which sought to give incentives for African 

countries to build free markets and integrate their 

economies into the world trading system. One such 

success story is the integration of regional trade networks 



in Southern Africa. In Maseru, Lesotho, the Presitex 

garment company was looking forward to expanding 

its sales to developed nations. USAID has trade hubs 

in Africa where different types of companies can come 

together and gain access to the US market. The trade hub 

introduced Presitex to a knitting mill in South Africa (a 

closer alternative to the company’s original supplier in 

Asia). Due to lower production costs, Presitex was able 

to enter the US market with lower prices. As a result of 

the integration of regional networks, trade in textiles 

between Lesotho and South Africa has increased due to 

similar deals with other garment companies in Lesotho. 

Lesotho’s garment industry, which employs over 50,000 

people, is growing rapidly due to better trade networks 

and informational resources. 31 


The Task Force on the Aid for Trade Initiative has 

offered recommendations based on its research and 

evaluation on the progress of the aid for trade campaign. 

One set of recommendations concerns donor countries 

and organization. It recommends that donor countries 

give more weight to trade issues in their aid packages and 

better educate the staff of aid agencies on the importance 

and main issues regarding trade as a form of aid. Donors 

should also work together to develop aid packages that 

would harmonize procedures for aid allocation and 

agency coordination. In these aid packages, donors 

should focus on infrastructure projects, as those tend 

to be at the core of supply-side constraints, and work 

with multilateral development banks like the Asian 

Development Bank to increase the scale of projects while 

at the same time spreading the operational and financial 

risk among multiple donor-side parties. 32 

Another set of recommendations pertains to recipient 

countries. Recipient countries are highly encouraged to 

integrate trade into national development strategies and 

propose priority trade projects to donors for financing. 

The Task Force also recommends the creation of a 

National Aid-for-Trade Committee in recipient countries 

that would be shielded politically so they do not suffer 

retribution from certain sectors of the economy that 

must bear losses for the sake of trade promotion and 

capacity building. The Committee would set economic 

priorities, ensure that trade remains a critical part of 

development strategies, identify sources of funding for 

projects, and determine the country’s needs and report it 

to multilateral agencies. 

11


Questions A Resolution Must Answer 

How should international institutions be involved in 

assisting developing countries build trade capacity? 

Should the WTO focus more on financial assistance 

or technical assistance? 

How should the WTO approach regulations regarding 

developing countries? 

Does the promotion of free trade hurt the initial 

stages of trade capacity building? 

Should there be bilateral partnerships or should most 

of the assistance be provided through international 

institutions? 

What kind of ways can the WTO 

help developing countries 

gain knowledge about the 

complexities of international 

trade regulations and rules? 

Should there be conditions attached to financial 

assistance? 

How big of a role should developed countries play in 

leading financial assistance? 

Where should technical or financial assistance be 

directed? Infrastructure? Government bureaucracies? 

Technological development? 

How should human capacity and institutional 

capacity develop since they are both crucial to the 

development of trade capacity? 


Almost all countries and significant international 

financial institutions are in support of the goals and 

principles of Aid for Trade. Developed countries want to 

see the end of decades of aid money going to waste due to 

ineffective aid programs, corrupt bureaucracies, and poor 

monitoring and tracking systems. Developing countries 

want more financial assistance in longer term projects 

(i.e. building trade capacity) that would yield not only 

economic growth in the short run but would also build a 

strong economic, social, and physical foundation for the 

future. International financial institutions were founded 

on the principles of promoting trade, sustainable 

development, and technical and financial assistance to 

developing countries, and thus would naturally support 

“Almost all countries and significant 

international financial institutions are in 

support of the goals and principles of Aid 

for Trade...” 

such an initiative. Where these three groups differ on is 

the implementation and execution of this initiative. There 

is a whole spectrum of views regarding how to identify 

where aid for trade is most needed, how to fund it, and 

how to promote economic and social development on 

the national and regional levels. 

International Trade Center 

The International Trade Center (ITC) is a joint 

agency between the World Trade Organization and the 

United Nations and it strongly supports aid for trade. As 

an organization that’s dedicated to compiling research for 

technical assistance and trade policy, the International 

Trade Center is a crucial resource for countries seeking to 

reform their trade policies. Some of the biggest problems 

that ITC wants to see addressed 

with aid for trade include more 

incorporation and aid for smalland 

medium-enterprises (SMEs), 

the strengthening of institutional 

and physical infrastructure, and 

more focus on what recipient countries’ goals are rather 

than on what the goals of the donor country are. 33 

World Bank 

The World Bank is an international financial 

institution that provides lending instruments to 

developing countries and it strongly supports aid 

for trade through the Integrated Framework and the 

Enhanced Integrated Framework. It would like to see the 

incorporation of trade into national growth strategies 

and supports a bigger role of the private sector in helping 

the nation build trade capacity. The biggest problems the 

World Bank wants to see addressed include more regional 

cooperation in growth and trade strategies and more 

ownership of local countries in their own development 

plans. 34 

Least Developed Countries (LDCs) 

The least developed countries (LDCs) are ones that 

have the lowest national income, human resources, 

and economic stability. Being the ones with the most 

to benefit from aid for trade, they are in favor of the 

initiative. They see many shortcomings with the current 

aid for trade initiatives such as the inadequacies of the 

IF and JITAP in dealing with supply-side constraints. 

A solution they support is value chain analysis, which 

is the evaluation of all production stages of a certain 

good. The analysis should identify which segments of a 

good’s production could be improved to lower costs and 

12 


increase efficiency so that goods can be sold for cheaper 

prices on the international market. This could tell the 

government where to allocate its funds to decrease 

supply-side constraints. 35 

African, Caribbean, Pacific Group of States (ACP 

Group) 

The ACP Group is a group of 79 countries and its 

main objectives are sustainable development and poverty 

reduction. It believes that aid for trade should only be an 

addition to other development assistances and supports 

country-specific aid for trade packages. One strong policy 

that the Group advocates is the financing of aid for trade 

through grants. It believes a lump sum of money would 

be more effective in most development assistance. In 

other aspects of longer term development assistance like 

infrastructure building, the ACP group supports longerterm 

concessional loans. 36 

European Union and United States 

The European Union and United States strongly 

support aid for trade. They believe that through value 

chain analysis, developing countries and other donors 

can identify the areas that need the most outside financial 

support. Once these areas have been identified, the funding 

for these events that the EU and US support is in the 

form of public-private partnerships. These partnerships 

are business ventures in which private businesses are 

allowed to fund and execute a public project. The private 

businesses would assume the operational and financial 

risks of the project but would get special benefits such 

as exclusive rights or tax exemptions. These partnerships 

allow the government to push through smaller-scale aid 

for trade initiatives without sacrificing too much financial 

capital. With the capital, the government would instead 

undertake larger scale trade capacity building projects. 37 


The sources I found most helpful were documents on 

the multilateral organizations such as the Organization 

for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 

the International Trade Center, World Bank, and the 

World Trade Organization. Even though Aid for Trade is 

a fairly new topic, there is a wealth of articles, reports, and 

research about situations in various recipient countries 

and the impact of aid for trade programs within the past 

few years. These are just suggestions. Feel free to explore 

topics mentioned in more detail if you are interested and 

to explore other topics mentioned only in briefing. Don’t 

hesitate to reach out to me if necessary! 



TOPIC B: TRADE AND THE ENVIRON- 

MENT 


The world economy has grown tremendously within 

the past five decades. Worldwide GDP has risen sixfold 

as the population increased from 2.5 billion in 

1950 to 6 billion today. Three factors have led to this 

unprecedented growth in economic activity: advances in 

information and communication technology, reduction 

of trade barriers, and reduction of barriers to foreign 

investment. These factors have combined to lower the 

transaction costs of international commerce and have 

integrated many countries’ economies into the world. 

As trade increased, countries have been able to specialize 

in industries where they have comparative advantage, 

resulting in faster growth than ever before. 38 

At the same time, environmental degradation has 

increased unprecedentedly as well. According to statistics 

compiled by the World Trade Organization, “global 

energy use has increased nearly 70 percent since 1971 and 

is projected to increase at more than 2 percent annually 

over the next 15 years. This will raise greenhouse gas 

emissions by 50 per cent over current levels.” On the 

ground, increased agricultural activity has also produced 

excess nitrogen (from fertilizers) that reduces soil fertility. 

And in the waters, 58 percent of the world’s coral reefs 

and 34 percent of all fish species are currently at risk from 

human activities. Most oceans are already overfished with 

declining yields. 39 

Supporters of trade liberalization believe that 

environmental degradation results not from trade but 

from weak environmental policies and support more 

trade liberalization to help improve the environment. 

They believe that as societies get richer, they will have 

more resources to devote to pro-environment initiatives 

and will obtain more environmentally-preferable 

technologies through international transfers. These 

advocates also believe that liberalization, following 

the basic principles of economics, promotes efficient 

allocation of resources, including environmental 

resources, allowing the production of goods using the 

least amount of resources and energy. 40 

Critics of trade liberalization point out that after 

three decades of trade liberalization, there is little to 

show for how trade promotes environmental protection 

and improvement. The following are some arguments 

that critics of trade liberalization often make: freer 

13


trade promotes more long-distance transport, which is 

a major contributor to pollution and natural resource 

consumption; trade rules impede national governments’ 

own environmental policies; the production of highly 

traded goods like cotton and cigarettes are more harmful 

to the environmental than the production of goods for 

domestic consumption which it replaces. 41 

The World Trade Organization’s challenge is 

to reconcile trade liberalization and environment 

protection. Since the WTO is, at the core, a trade-related 

organization, it must approach this reconciliation from 

the trade perspective. Trade rules are the most powerful 

tools that the WTO has. The WTO must reform current 

trade rules so that they can incorporate or consider 

MEAs and ensure that environmental considerations will 

become an essential part of all trade negotiations. The 

new set of international trade rules should reflect the 

mutual supportiveness that nations have been calling for 

during the past two decades. 


Environmental considerations were not the primary 

concerns when the international trade system was 

reformed after WWII. In the General Agreement on 

Tariffs and Trade (GATT) signed in 1947, the only 

mention of the environment was in the exception clause 

of Article XX, which allowed exceptions to normal trading 

rules if necessary to “protect human, animal or plant life 

or health, or to conserve exhaustible natural resources, 

provided that such measures do not discriminate between 

sources of imports or constitute a disguised restriction 

on international trade.” For the first decades of the 

GATT, no references were made to the environment in 

any dispute settlements, negotiations, and proceedings. 

The reason for the lack of presence in trade negotiations 

during the GATT’s formative decades is that trade was 

not perceived to be an environmental issue. There was 

not enough economic evidence that suggested that trade 

had a direct impact on the environment. 42 

After decades of silence, environmental issues 

regarding trade finally came up on the GATT agenda 

in the 1980s. Developing countries were concerned 

about the trading of goods that had begun to be banned 

in wealthier, exporting countries. Meanwhile, other 

discussions regarding trade’s impact on the environment 

were appearing in various conventions throughout the 

world. Some conventions were successful in ratifying the 

first international agreements limiting the impact of trade 

on the environment. These include the Basel Convention 

on the Control of Transboundary Movements of 

Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and the Convention 

on Prior Informed Consent for Hazardous Chemicals 

and Pesticides in International Trade. 43 

Environmental issues regarding trade exploded in the 

1990s. They began with a series of heated environmentalrelated 

trade disputes in the early 1990s, most notably the 

tuna-dolphin dispute between Mexico and the United 

States. The US imposed an import ban on tuna harvested 

in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean because the process 

of catching the tunas in that area involved the killing 

of numerous dolphins. When Mexico complained to 

the governing body of the GATT, an adjudication panel 

convened. Shockingly, the panel ruled in favor of Mexico, 

stating that the US violated core GATT principles 

including a provision that prohibited discrimination of 

imported produces on the basis of process and production 

methods. The environmental community viewed this 

ruling as a threat to the environmental movement and 

the legal status of trade-related provisions in multilateral 

environment agreements (MEAs). On the other hand, 

the trade community welcomed this ruling since it 

feared that allowing trade barriers for extra-territorial 

environmental objects would open the door to further 

trade-restricting measures that would hide under the 

mask of environmental protection. 44 

There was much anti-trade sentiment after the 

GATT ruling on the tuna-dolphin dispute. In order to 

restore public trust in the international trading system, 

the European Free Trade Association requested the 

reconvention of the dormant Group on Environmental 

Measures and International Trade (EMIT). After two 

years of research and work, the Group reported to 

the 49 th Session of the Contracting Parties in January 

1994. The report supported a trading system that could 

reconcile the conflicts between environmental protection 

and trade and formed the basis for the Decisions on 

Trade and Environment, a ministerial declaration at the 

Uruguay Round Marrakesh Ministerial meeting in April 

1994. The Decision called for the creation of a Committee 

on Trade and the Environment, which would work to 

reconcile environment-related trade disputes. 45 

The creation of the WTO in 1995 from the 

Marrakesh Agreement ensured that environmental issues 

would be considered alongside trade policies in the 

international multilateral trading system. The objectives 

of the WTO now include embracing the principle of 

sustainable development, which, as defined by the World 

14 



commission on Environment and Development, is 

“development that meets the needs of the present without 

compromising the ability of future generations to meet 

their own needs.” Most importantly, the “institutional 

machinery” for settling trade and environment disputes 

has been reformed in the form of the Committee on 

Trade and Environment (CTE) and is in place to make 

positive suggestions toward the objective of sustainable 

development. 46 

Conceptual Explanation 

Kuznets Curve 

Before moving on to the case studies and the discussion 

about legal complications, it is important to understand 

the basic concepts of trade-related environmental 

pollution. One important hypothesis about the effect 

of trade on the environment is the Environmental 

Kuznets Curve hypothesis (EKC). According to the 

EKC, the relationship between economic growth and 

environmental degradation is an inverted U shape. At low 

levels of income per capita, economic growth comes at a 

heavy cost to the environment (known as the scale effect). 

As countries reach a certain level of income per capita, 

composition and technique effects fully compensate for 

scale effects and environmental degradation decreases. 

Once countries are rich enough, the hypothesis says 

that there will be a shift toward cleaner industries and 

technologies as wealthier citizens demand a cleaner 

environment. 47 

Scale, composition, and technique effects 

Economists suggest environmental improvement 

beyond the crucial point on the Kuznets curve based on 

Kuznets Curve 

three reasons. Scale effects state that increases in growth 

are linked with increases in pollution; the more goods 

and services that are produced, the more greenhouse gases 

(GHGs) are emitted (trade climate linkages). However, 

composition and technique effects can offset scale effects. 


Composition effects occur when the economy begins 

shifting from manufacturing and energy-intensive 

industries to services and other less pollution-intensive 

industries. Further environmental improvement results 

from technique effects. As a nation becomes wealthier 

and becomes a more attractive investment target, foreign 

investors will bring in new techniques of production 

that are more energy efficient (climate linkages). 

Increasing income will also lead to better education and 

environmental awareness, ultimately resulting in more 

stringent environmental policies and the rise of a middle 

class that demands a cleaner environment. 48 

Historical Case Studies 

Vietnam 

Over the past decade, Vietnam’s integration into 

the world economy has been aided by liberalization 

of trade and growth of its export sector. In the past 

decade, Vietnam’s economy has doubled in size while the 

government has cut poverty in half. Other notable figures 

include 20 percent per year growth in exports and growth 

of FDI inflows by 10 percent per year. The source of trade 

liberalization and economic growth has been bilateral 

and multilateral trade agreements. Examples include the 

ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, which lowered tariffs on 

imports from ASEAN countries to below 20 percent, and 

the United States-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement, 

which removed quota restrictions from trade between 

the two nations. After the USBTA took effect, exports to 

the US from Vietnam increased 128 percent. 49 

Economic growth has also been made more 

sustainable by trade liberalization. The share of crude 

oil in total exports declined between 1990 and 2002 

while manufacturing exports rose from 6 percent to 32 

percent within the same time period. Diversification also 

emerged in the destinations of Vietnam’s exports. Japan 

and Singapore became less important destinations while 

the EU and the US have become major markets for 

Vietnamese goods. 

According to Muthukumara Mani and Shreyasi, 

authors of the World Bank Policy Research Working 

Paper 3879 on trade liberalization and the environment 

in Vietnam, the opening up of trade has been paralleled 

with increased pollution in multiple sectors. They 

performed data analysis and the results showed that 

exports from the toxic pollution intensive sectors have 

significantly increased during the past decade, evidence 

of the composition effect. Specifically, most of the 

exports come from the textile, leather, and rubber 

15


products industries. These industries are large consumers 

for industrial chemicals. The increased demand for 

industrial chemicals coupled with the lack of a strong 

environmental regulation system in Vietnam has resulted 

in major toxic and water pollution. 50 

Impact of NAFTA on the Environment 

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 

opened up significant trade between the US and Mexico. 

However, it has also greatly impacted the maize trade as 

well as the environment of both countries. 

Environmental impact in the US 

Corn is one of the United States’ largest and most 

chemical-intensive crops. Twenty percent of all the 

harvested land in the U.S is for corn. Chemical fertilizers 

are used on the majority of US corn crops and run-off 

is a major source of water pollution around the “corn 

belt” in the middle of the country. Most shocking is the 

presence of a dead zone within the Gulf of Mexico. An 

area the size of a small US state is completely devoid of 

all life due to run-off from the Mississippi River, which 

empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The environmental 

impact of growing corn is not just limited to pollution; it 

also depletes valuable natural resources. The majority of 

irrigated corn fields reside in Nebraska, Texas, Colorado, 

and Oklahoma. These states rely on the Ogallala Aquifer 

which is being depleted at unsustainable rates. These 

signs of environmental degradation have only been 

exacerbated by the opening of the Mexican market to 

US corn. Land in the US that would’ve otherwise been 

used to grow other crops is now growing corn. The 

aggregate effects of increased corn production from 

trade liberalization include 100,000 additional tons of 

nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium-based loadings to 

US water each year. 51 

Environmental impact in Mexico 

For Mexico, the negative environmental impact of 

corn trade liberalization is the loss of agro-biodiversity. 

Mexico has 40 distinct native maize varieties resulting 

from both natural selection and artificial selection 

by farmers over thousands of years. Approximately 

20 percent use only very little modern fertilizers for 

chemical inputs. Such agro-biodiversity is important not 

only because it is a center of Mexican culture, but also 

because Mexico’s diverse varieties of corn are essential for 

crop-breeding to meet growing demand for corn varieties 

throughout the world. 52 

The trade in corn between Mexico and the US impacts 

agro-biodiversity in two ways. Trade liberalization 

in corn brought a flood of corn imports from the US, 

cutting prices by nearly 50 percent. This puts pressure 

on many of the marginal maize farmers that make up the 

20 percent of Mexico’s economically active population 

that grow corn. As farmers lose competitiveness, they 

will migrate to other areas within Mexico to find better 

paying jobs, taking the diverse agricultural knowledge 

with them. 53 

The second way trade impacts agro-biodiversity is 

the contamination of traditional cornfields by genetically 

modified (GM) corn crops from the US. Research from 

the North American Commission for Environmental 

Cooperation (NACEC) has shown that the spread of 

GM varieties through Mexico’s corn fields has been more 

rapid than previously thought, leading to the fear that 

many traditional varieties of maize will not be able to 

compete with these new herbicide and Bt tolerant maize 

varieties. 54 


Leaders of the G20 rich and emerging economies called for intensified 

efforts to complete the long-running Doha round of global 

trade talks, saying 2011offers a narrow window of opportunity. 

Doha Development Agenda (DDA) 

The Doha Development Agenda was adopted at the 

2001 WTO Ministerial Meeting in Doha, Qatar, starting 

the Doha Development Round of negotiations that 

continue to this day. The Doha Development Agenda 

provides new opportunities for developing nations to 

help shape the international trade rules, giving these 

nations more say as they integrate their economies into 

the world. One of the main issues in negotiations is 

regarding the environment. Talks surround the issues 

of reconciling conflicts between WTO trade rules and 

multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and of 

reducing or eliminating trade barriers for environmental 

goods and services. 55 

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and 

Development (OECD) countries already have low or 

16 


zero tariffs on environmental goods and have already 

begun liberalizing trade in environmental services. Thus, 

the next steps in the negotiations include reducing these 

barriers in developing countries, the new exporters in 

environmental goods and services. 56 

For environmental goods, the difference in level of 

tariffs is high between OECD countries and developing 

countries. While the average import tariff applied by 

OECD countries was less than 3% in 1996, the tariffs rate 

applied by a group of developing countries (Argentina, 

Brazil, Chile, Malaysia, and Thailand) averaged almost 

20%. Currently, the average tariff applied by developing 

countries has dropped slightly but there are still wide 

variations. Some emerging economies impose tariffs of 

almost 30% on environmental goods and services. 57 

Barriers to trade in environmental services have been 

progressing slowly due to previous commitments of 

OECD and some developing countries. These countries 

had made binding commitments regarding market access 

and national treatment for environmental services and 

thus negotiations have to work around the terms that had 

already been agreed between countries. Some examples 

of barriers to trade that still exist include “allowing 

exports of services only through firms with commercial 

presence in the importing country; limiting the scope of 

foreign business to specified activities; and requiring that 

a specified, significant proportion of staff of the foreign 

established company be nationals of the host country, 

regardless of experience or qualifications.” 58 

Reconciling Trade Policies with Environmental 

Policies: Legal framework 

Conflict with Environmental Protection 

World trade policies and environmental policies do 

often conflict. Just as in any issue, one must find where to 

draw the line between the two sides. Trade policies cannot 

be pushed to the limit at the expense of the environment 

and environmental policies cannot be pushed to the limit 

at the expense of economic development and growth. 

What follows below are the key legal issues discussed 

during environment-trade disputes. 

National Treatment and Product Standards 

One of the core principles of the GATT system 

of trade liberalization is called “national treatment.” 

According to GATT Article III, it obligates governments 

to treat foreign goods and persons as it treats its 

domestic goods and persons, thereby making this a rule 

of nondiscrimination. However, GATT does include 

some language in Article III that states that regulations 



and taxes “shall not be imposed in a way so as to afford 

protection against import competition.” However, this 

can sometimes cause conflict in the environmental 

debate. For example, an Ontario regulation imposing 

a higher tax on the sale of certain type A plastic bowls 

than on more biodegradable bowls originally has good 

environmental intentions. However, if the case is that 

very few Ontario-made bowls are sold in type A plastic 

bowls while imports from the US are often sold in type 

A plastic bowls, this regulation becomes discriminatory 

and thus violates GATT trade rules. 59 

The Process-Product Problem 

One key issue that needs to be resolved is the processproduct 

problem. Suppose an importing country wants to 

limit the import of automobiles that do not meet a specific 

emissions and fuel efficiency requirement. This seems 

like a justifiable environmental regulation. Now suppose 

the importing country wants to extend environmental 

regulation further. Instead of regulating the automobile’s 

features, the government decides to regulate the factory 

that produces the automobile. The factory might be 

one that fails to satisfy the importing country’s own 

environmental regulations and heavily pollutes the air 

and water as it manufactures cars. Thus, the target of 

the government’s regulation is the production “process.” 

This may again seem like a justifiable environmental 

regulation. However, experts have argued that this would 

open a “Pandora’s box” of problems that could open large 

loopholes in the GATT. 60 

For example, an importing country might limit the 

import of specific electronics because the manufacturing 

plant in the exporting country pays its employees a 

wage that is less than the minimum wage specified by 

the importing country. The importing country’s purpose 

of specifying a minimum wage is most likely to ensure 

that goods are not produced in wretched and inhumane 

working conditions. However, this might run into 

conflict. If the wage paid in the exporting country is 

substantial enough to live in that country, then it could 

be a fair wage even if that wage is not up to the standard 

specified by the importing country. How could trade 

policies resolve this dispute? 61 

The most famous example of the process-product 

problem is the Mexican-US tuna dolphin case. In the 

eastern tropical areas of the Pacific Ocean, schools of 

yellowfin tuna often swim under the dolphins. When 

fishermen use nets to capture the tuna, they often trap 

the dolphins in the tuna, killing them in the end. Thus, 

17


the process of capturing tuna was at the center of the 

trade debate. According to the US Marine Mammal 

Protection Act, the US government must embargo all 

tuna from a certain country if that country can’t prove 

that it meets dolphin protection standards set by US law. 

The country in question was Mexico. The US banned 

imports of Mexican tuna to discourage the harming of 

dolphins during the process of tuna fishing. The GATT 

panel ruled against the US, saying it could not ban 

Mexican tuna simply because of the way it was produced. 

Another important conclusion of the panel was that no 

country is allowed to use trade measures to enforce its 

own domestic laws in foreign countries. Although this 

was a disappointment to environmental advocates, the 

opposite ruling would have set a dangerous precedence. 

Any country would be able to say that a foreign country 

was violating its own domestic environmental laws and 

the country would be able to enact trade penalties in 

“retaliation.” 62 

Subsidies 

Legal complications with environmental policies 

illustrated by national treatment and process-product 

problem also extend to subsidies in international trade 

policy. Before explaining how subsidies can often conflict 

with environmental protection, it is important to first 

elaborate on the nuances regarding subsidies. 63 

There are traditionally two types of subsidies: export 

subsidies (which are applied to only exports) and general 

subsidies (which are applied to all goods produced in the 

country, whether exported or consumed domestically). 

Historically, international trade agreements have placed 

more restraint on export subsidies. 64 

Subsidies can have a few different types of impacts on 

international trade. The first impact is on the importing 

country. Because the goods coming into the importing 

country are often cheaper due to the subsidies, the 

importing country’s own goods are at a disadvantage. 

International rules often allow the importing country to 

impose a “countervailing duty” to offset this effect. In 

essence, it is allowed to put a tariff on the subsidized 

goods. Another impact of subsidies is inhibiting imports 

into a subsidizing country. The importing country can 

subsidize domestic producers, which allows domestic 

producers to lower prices and beat out imports. 65 

Now how do these concepts apply in the 

environmental debate? The definition of subsidy has not 

been very well established. While subsidies could come 

in the traditional sense of monetary aid or tax incentives, 

they can also come in other forms. For example, suppose 

an exporting country lacks strong environmental 

regulation and exports goods to a country with strict 

regulations. Can the importing country argue that the 

lack of strong environmental regulation is a “subsidy” 

that the exporting country provides, resulting in unfair 

competition? This issue has come up in various conflicts 

between Mexico and American/Canadian producers 

in regards to the NAFTA treaty. Similarly, suppose an 

exporting country gives domestic manufactures tax 

breaks for setting up plants that are more environmentally 

friendly. When those goods are exported, the importing 

country could justifiably impose countervailing duties 

due to the subsidized nature of those goods. 66 

Exports and Competitiveness 

Supporters of trade liberalization often argue 

that a country’s competiveness is compromised by 

environmental rules and standards. If an exporting 

country has strict environmental standards and rules 

that producers must meet, then those producers must 

factor those costs into their price structures. The prices 

they charge will consequently be higher, placing them at 

a disadvantage when competing with another exporting 

country that does not have strict environmental 

regulations. In the minds of the environmentalist country, 

it is unfair for them because they have to bear a financial 

and economic cost for contributing to environmental 

compliance. 67 

In some ways, the conflict between environmental 

policies and trade liberalization is similar to other 

problems resulting from differences in society. For 

example, countries with lax worker safety laws and lower 

minimum wages could also be said to have an unfair 

competitive edge in exports. These kinds of differences 

will also be present from society to society. Thus, one 

issue that needs to be addressed is whether environmental 

policies are substantially different from other policies 

regulating minimum wages, worker safety, and others. If 

environmental policies are, then they must be considered 

in a special manner within the world trading system. 68 

Relationship between MEAs and the WTO 

Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) 

have historically been the best solution to resolving 

potential trade and environment conflicts. However, 

these agreements often come in conflict with the 

international system of trade rules established by the 

WTO. These conflicts result due to the trade-related 

provisions in MEAs that help countries achieve their 

18 


environmental goals. These measures, as explained 

below, are primarily used to control trade, where trade 

is perceived to contribute directly to environmental 

damage, and to add incentive to adhere to the MEA by 

imposing trade penalties. Because WTO members must 

observe the most-favored nation and national treatment 

principles and eliminate “quantitative restrictions,” 

they are put in a difficult situation when faced with an 

environmental agreement that says parties can use trade 

restrictions against some countries (non-parties) but not 

against others (parties). According to environmental 

principles, they should follow the MEAs and penalize 

non-parties should they act in a manner harmful to the 

environment. According to trade principles, they are 

not following international trade rules outlined by the 

WTO. One example of this is the previously mentioned 

US-Mexico tuna dolphin example. The GATT panel 

ruled strictly based on the conditions of the trade treaties, 

without acknowledging or referencing MEAs. 69 

In recent years, steps have been taken to resolve WTO 

and MEA conflicts in other ways. Negotiators and new 

agreements now stress “mutual supportiveness” between 

WTO rules and MEAs rather than the old principle of 

supremacy of one principle. One such example is the 

Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. In the preamble to 

the Protocol, there are three paragraphs that state the 

principle that “neither trade law nor the Protocol has a 

hierarchical position above the other, and, where there 

is overlap, the interpretation of each should be done 

in a manner striving to find consistency between both.” 

Another approach to promote mutual supportiveness is to 

implement MEAs in trade laws. In NAFTA, for example, 

there is a provision specifying under which conditions 

certain MEAs will prevail over NAFTA trade rules. 70 

Trade-related provisions 

One concern nations often have is how to balance 

trade law obligations (determined by WTO laws) with 

environmental obligations in MEAs. A way to reconcile 

the two is through trade-related provisions in MEAs. 

Although they are uncommon in MEAs, they have 

important effects on trade flows. 

Firstly, trade-related provisions in MEAs provide fairer 

regulatory frameworks. Participants in a market must be 

confident that all comparable parties are following the 

same regulatory constraints. Some constraints reflect 

economic and social choices of consumers while others 

reflect urgent environmental imperatives that must be 

respected above all else. Trade-related provisions allow 



participants to see under which cases which constraints 

are mandatory for all members and which are viewed as 

optional. 71 

Another reason why such provisions are necessary is 

their ability to control markets. Some goods have high 

demand but meeting that demand could deplete the 

resources from which they’re made. The environmental 

opportunity cost of these goods may not be reflected in 

the market prices of those goods and thus market forces 

can’t prevent the resources from being depleted. In these 

circumstances, only an international structure of market 

control can promote conservation and protection. A key 

example of this is CITES, which protects certain species 

from the market forces and trade. 72 

While trade-related provisions help promote fairer 

competition and better protection of the environment, 

they also ensure compliance to environmental 

agreements. For example, the Montreal Protocol bans 

trade with non-parties in ozone-depleting substance. 

Because parties under the Protocol are limited in their 

production of ozone-depleting substances, they might 

try to take advantage by importing these substances 

The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty designed to protect 

the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances 

believed to be responsible for ozone depletion. Pictured above is the 

largest Antarctic ozone hole recorded as of September 2006. 

from countries not under the Protocol (non-parties). 

This trade-related provision in the Montreal Protocol 

ensures that the effectiveness and original purpose of the 

19


agreement (to limit trade in ozone-depleting substances) 

is not compromised. 73 

Environmental Goods 

One of the major challenges in the environmental 

goods debate is the lack of an internationally agreed 

definition of an environmental good. Working 

definitions do exist. Both the APEC and OECD define 

environmental goods as goods that “measure, prevent, 

limit, minimize or correct environmental damage to 

water, air and soil, as well as problems related to waste, 

noise and eco-systems... [including] 

cleaner technologies, products and 

services that reduce environmental 

risk and minimize pollution and 

resource use.” This is however a 

very broad development that can 

encompass goods of almost any 

sort. 74 

The lack of an internationally agreed definition 

leads to another problem. Negotiators have trouble 

addressing “problematic” environmental goods. These 

include environmental goods have multiple uses, some 

of which are not “environmental,” and goods that are 

defined by their superior environmental performance 

over comparable goods. These goods are problematic for 

several reasons. For example, the inclusion of some goods 

as environmental goods would create incentives to bribe 

customs officials to have certain goods be classified more 

favorably. The inclusion of other goods would require 

would require an international consensus on the criteria 

for creating new distinctions between products. 75 

Some examples of environmental goods with multiple 

end users include centrifuges. Separating harmful 

waste products from waste streams require centrifuges 

but centrifuges are also used in food processing and 

medicine. A report from the mid-1990s estimated that 

approximately only 10% of all centrifuges sold that 

year were for environmental purposes. So the question 

is: should centrifuges be an environmental good that 

receives preferential trade treatments? 76 

Thus, any international agreement regarding 

environmental goods must develop some procedures for 

ensuring that the product description and categorizing of 

goods are consistent and efficient. 

“One of the major challenges in the 

environmental goods debate is the 

lack of an internationally agreed 

definition of an environmental 

good...” 

Relevant Action 

Canada vs. European Communities: Asbestos 

In 1999, Canada challenged France’s ban on chrysotile 

asbestos as unnecessarily restrictive to trade because 

“controlled use” of the substance eliminated any harm to 

humans and the environment. The implications of this 

ruling were significant. Since asbestos is one of the most 

thoroughly studied toxic substances, a WTO’s ruling 

overturning France’s ban would’ve put into question 

which substances could indeed be banned. The WTO 

panel ruled in favor of France and 

the European communities based 

on Article XX of the GATT that 

stated that restrictive trade measures 

could be enacted when “necessary to 

protect animal, human, plant life or 

health.” 77 

Shrimp-turtle case 

In 1997, Indian, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Thailand 

challenged the US ban on the import of certain shrimps 

and shrimp products. The issue of turtles was at the core 

of the debate. The US Endangered Species Act requires 

that shrimp trawlers to use “turtle excluder devices” 

(TEDs) in their nets when fishing for shrimp. Another 

US law also bans the importation of shrimp and shrimp 

products that are not harvested using this technology. 78 

The WTO panel ruled against the US but for surprising 

reasons. It made clear that countries have the right to 

trade restrictions to protect the environment. However, 

the basis for the ruling was on non-discriminatory trade 

policies. While the US had the right to restrictions under 

Article XX, it did not apply its ban equally across all 

countries. Instead, it provided technical and financial 

assistance to countries in the Western hemisphere that 

helped the fishermen there acquire TEDs and avoid the 

ban. 79 

EU vs. US: Automobile Taxes 

In 1994, the European Union filed a complaint 

against three US automobile measures. They were the 

luxury tax on cars, the gas guzzler tax, and the Corporate 

Average Fuel Economy regulation (CAFE). The European 

Union believed that their cars were at a competitive 

disadvantage in the US market due to these legislations. 

The WTO panel found that the luxury and gas 

guzzler taxes were consistent with GATT articles while 

CAFE was ruled as inconsistent. The reason lied in the 

US having a separate foreign car accounting system 

20 



that discriminated against foreign cars and in a system 

that relied on the “basis of factors relating to control or 

ownership of producers or importers, rather than on the 

basis of factors directly related to the products as such.” 80 

Venezuela, Brazil vs. US: Gasoline 

The first dispute adjudicated by the WTO was 

the Venezuela/Brazil vs. US on the issue of national 

treatment of gasoline. The US had stricter rules on the 

chemical content of imported gasoline than it did on 

its domestic supplies. Venezuela believed that the US 

violated the national treatment principle and could not 

justify it by Article XX of the GATT. The WTO ruled 

in favor of Venezuela because the US was found to have 

discriminated against gasoline imports. 81 

The Convention on International Trade in 

Endangered Species 

Representatives of 80 countries signed the CITES 

conservation agreement in 1973. The agreement seeks to 

regulate trade of certain species as well as their parts and 

goods made from them. The Conference of the Parties, 

the governing body, maintains a list of protected species 

under recommendation of the scientific community. 

Restrictions on trade range from prohibition to partial 

licensing systems. CITES has been characterized by 

unusually active NGO participation and has expanded 

in recent years to include new species whose trade 

volumes the scientific community has deemed to be 

unacceptable. 82 


Trade-related Provisions 

Many MEAs include trade restrictions as trade 

provisions to ensure compliance. Past examples include 

the Convention on International Trade in Endangered 

Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which uses a 

permit system to regulate export and import of certain 

endangered species. Another example is the US banning 

imports from Thailand due to Thailand’s violation of 

CITES provisions. 

Because MEAs with trade-related provisions are 

so effective, one approach to reconciling differences 

between WTO rules and environmental agreements is 

the exemption of MEAs from WTO challenge. Ways of 

accomplishing this include an amendment to the Final 

Act of the WTO or a legally binding WTO decision. 

Another approach is to come up with a list of criteria that 

a MEA must meet in order to be exempt from challenge. 


Of course, there must be a minimum number of 

countries as signatories as well as strong cases supporting 

the necessity of trade restrictions. 83 

Questions A Resolution Must Answer 

How should the WTO address the issue of national 

treatment? 

Should the WTO continue to put legal emphasis on 

the production process’ effect on the environment? 

What are the exceptions that would justify barriers to 

trade? 

How can the WTO hold nations accountable to their 

environmental agreements without going outside of 

its jurisdiction? 

Should the WTO extend oversight into MEAs? What 

are the criteria for an environmental good? 


OECD 

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and 

Development consists of most of the world’s industrialized 

countries. Four principles guide the organization in trade 

and environment discussions. The first is the polluter 

pays principle, which says that polluters should bear the 

economic and financial costs of satisfying environmental 

regulations. The second is the harmonization principle, 

saying that governments must seek to make policies 

that result in mutual supportiveness between trade 

rules and environmental policies. The third is national 

treatment and nondiscrimination principle, which is the 

same as the one stated in the GATT. The last principle 

is the compensating import levies and export rebates 

principle. This says that if a producing country has 

stricter environmental regulations and higher costs of 

compliance, that country’s government should not aid its 

domestic companies by levying higher tariffs on imports, 

giving tax rebates, or subsidizing exports. 84 

United Nations 

The UN Conference on Environment Development 

has focused on the changing relationship between the 

developing world and the developed world. It explores 

what roles developed countries should play in helping 

developing countries meet their environmental goals. 

Financial resource distribution is a key issue and there 

have been talks about the creation of a “green fund.” 85 

21


Developing Countries 

Developing countries often oppose developed 

countries in trade and environment negotiations as many 

are experiencing tremendous economic growth, often at 

the expense of the environment. They are concerned 

of unilateral use of trade measures for environmental 

purposes (as the US often did in the 1980s and the 

1990s). During the Doha Rounds, they were resistant 

to the discussion of environmental negotiations in 

the WTO and eventually reluctantly accepted the 

WTO environmental agenda. Due to their inability to 

prevent the discussion totally, they have been pushing 

for narrower interpretations of the Doha environmental 

mandate. 86 

European Community 

The European community has been an innovator in 

reconciling conflicts between trade and environmental 

policy. Ever since the 1987 Single European Act, the 

European Community has worked to adapt regulations 

to meet environmental goals as well as to eliminate 

the remaining barriers to trade within the European 

Community. The Act stated that the European Union 

has power to make environmental laws when it would 

be more effective than any individual country action 

in meeting environmental goals. This theme of unity 

extends to product regulations and standards as well. The 

EU has been working to harmonize technical regulations 

to production processes because differences in production 

processes could result in technical barriers to trade. 87 

Suggestions for Future Research 

The sources I found most helpful were the United 

Nations Environment Program’s “Environment and 

Trade: A Handbook,” documents on the OECD website, 

as well as law review articles that explained the legal 

nuances of the environment and trade debate. The 

sources definitely had some technical and legal jargon but 

they did do a great job of looking at the problem from 

all angles. These are just suggestions. Feel free to explore 

topics mentioned in more detail if you are interested and 

to explore other topics mentioned only in briefing. Don’t 

hesitate to reach out to me if necessary! 

POSITION PAPERS 

Position papers are a crucial part of a Model United 

Nations committee, as they serve two very important 

purposes. Firstly, writing the position paper is very 

helpful for you as it will promote your understanding of 

the main policies of the country that you are representing, 

including where your country stands on the issue, what 

actions it has taken in the past, and what it hopes to 

achieve in the conference. Secondly, the position papers 

that are written by each delegation can prove to be very 

useful for other delegates as well; they enable delegates 

to find out more about the specific details of different 

countries’ policies regarding the topic of discussion, 

and will thus promote better debate in committee. You 

should take care in writing these position papers, making 

sure that they are clear and concise, and that they include 

the necessary information stipulated below. 

Position papers should include a header with your full 

name, the topic area of the position paper, the country 

that you are representing, and the high school you are 

from. They should be single-spaced, in Times New 

Roman size 12 font, and should be organized into three 

main parts. The first part should include a statement 

of the problem and what your country sees as the most 

important aspects of the topic. You should demonstrate 

how the problem relates specifically to your country and 

why it is something that you are hoping to talk about. 

The second part should describe your country’s policies 

on the issue and what action it has taken in the past, and 

the third section should delineate potential solutions 

to the problem that your country would support. In 

certain cases, it’s possible that you may not be able to 

find specific information regarding what future solutions 

your country will support. If that is the case, the best 

approach would be to research the broader policies of 

your country and try to think of solutions of your own 

that you think are relevant. 

CLOSING REMARKS 

Model United Nations was developed to provide 

young individuals with knowledge about international 

relations and global issues, while at the same time offering 

experience with diplomacy. The Harvard Model United 

Nations conference targets a large group of high school 

students and successfully accomplishes these goals with 

a high level of organization, a devoted dais staff, and an 

outstanding secretariat. Most importantly however, the 

success of HMUN depends highly on you, the delegates. 

Your passion and interest about the topics that 

are discussed in committee are what stimulate the 

dynamic debate, promote the instructive atmosphere, 

and produce the thoughtful resolutions that will come 

out of this experience. The dedication and knowledge 

that you bring to the conference and the time that you 

22 



invest for its preparation will determine its success, for 

you and for other delegates. I understand that this may 

not be an easy task, but I am confident that you will 

rise to the challenge. In return, the dais staff promises 

to bring professionalism, enthusiasm, and dedication to 

the conference, and together, we hope to make HMUN 

2011 a truly rewarding experience. 

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions 

or concerns, whether about your research, or any other 

aspect of the conference. I am always happy to help. I 

wish you the best of luck with all of your endeavors 

throughout the year, and I look forward to meeting you 

at the conference. 

ENDNOTES 

1 “A Brief History of Aid.” AID/WATCH. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

2 Aid for Trade: What, Why and How? Geneva: World Trade Organization, 19 July 2010. Powerpoint. 

3 The Development Dimension - Aid for Trade: Making It Effective. Rep. Paris: Organization for Economic 

Cooperation and Development, 2006. Print. 

4 Ibid. 

5 “JITAP General Information.” JITAP - Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. 

. 

6 Ibid. 

7 Integrated Framework. Integrated Framework for Trade-related Technical Assistance. Web. Sept. 2010. . 

8 Ibid. 

9 Ibid. 



11 World Trade Organization - Home Page. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

12 Development Agenda and Aid for Trade. Rep. Geneva: Joint Ministerial Committee of the Boards of Governors 

of the Bank and the Fund On the Transfer of Real Resources to Developing Countries, 2005. 

13 Ibid. 

14 Ibid. 

15 Ibid. 

16 ITC’s Role in Aid for Trade in Africa. Rep. Geneva: International Trade Centre, 2008. 

17 Ibid 

18 ITC’s Role in Aid for Trade in South America. Rep. Geneva: International Trade Centre, 2008. 

19 Ibid. 

20 Ibid. 

21 ITC’s Role in Aid for Trade in Africa. Rep. Geneva: International Trade Centre, 2008. 



23 “Oita OVOP International Exchange Promotion Committee.” OVOP. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

24 Ibid. 

25 Development Agenda and Aid for Trade. Rep. Geneva: Joint Ministerial Committee of the Boards of Governors 

of the Bank and the Fund On the Transfer of Real Resources to Developing Countries, 2005. 

26 Ibid. 

27 Ibid. 

28 “PACT I ACHIEVEMENTS - International Trade Centre - ITC.” International Trade Centre - ITC - Export 

Impact for Good. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

29 Ibid. 

30 Ibid. 

31 U.S. Agency for International Development. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

32 Recommendations from The Task Force on Aid for Trade. Publication. Geneva: World Trade Organization, 2006. 

Print. 

33 Views on Aid for Trade by Multilateral Organisations: World Bank, ITC and IMF. Publication. Geneva: IMF and 

World Bank, 2008. Print. 

34 Ibid. 

35 Ibid. 

36 Ibid. 

37 Ibid. 


38 WTO Special Studies 4. Rep. no. ISBN 92-870-1211-3. Geneva: World Trade Organization, 1999. Print. 

39 Ibid. 

40 Ekins, Paul. Trade and Environment. Rep. Wisconsin: International Society for Ecological Economics, 2003. 

Print. 

41 Ibid. 




45 Ibid. 

46 Ibid. 

47 “Environment and Trade: A Handbook - Second Edition.” International Institute for Sustainable Development 

(IISD). Oct. 2005. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

48 Globalization and the Environment: Lessons from America. Washington D.C.: Heinrich Boll Foundation, 2004. Print. 

49 Trade Liberalization and the Environment in Vietnam. Geneva: World Bank, 2006. Print. 

50 Trade Liberalization and the Environment in Vietnam. Geneva: World Bank, 2006. Print. 



53 Ibid. 

54 Ibid. 

55 “Doha Development Agenda.” International Trade Centre - ITC - Export Impact for Good. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. 

. 

56 Opening Markets for Environmental Goods and Services. Rep. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and 

Development, 2005. Print. 





59 Jackson, John H. World Trade Rules and Environmental Policies: Congruence or Conflict. School of Law, Washington 

and Lee University. 1992. 








64 Ibid. 











70 Ibid. 

71 Ibid. 

72 Ibid. 

73 Ibid. 


75 Ibid. 

76 Ibid. 


77 “WTO | Environment - Disputes 8.” World Trade Organization - Home Page. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

78 Ibid. 

79 Ibid. 

80 Ibid. 

81 Ibid. 



83 Ibid. 

84 Ibid. 

85 Ibid. 

86 Bates, By Jenny. “PPI: Multilateral Environmental Agreements and the World Trade Organization by Jenny 

Bates.” Progressive Policy Institute: Defining the Third Way. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

87 Bates, By Jenny. “PPI: Multilateral Environmental Agreements and the World Trade Organization by Jenny 


23


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Topic A: Building Trade Capacity 

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Oct. 2010. . 

“A Brief History of Aid.” AID/WATCH. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

Choi, Kwan. “General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade.” General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade. Iowa State University: 

Department of Economics. Web. Sept. 2010. . 

Development Agenda and Aid for Trade. Rep. Geneva: Joint Ministerial Committee of the Boards of Governors of the 

Bank and the Fund On the Transfer of Real Resources to Developing Countries, 2005. 

The Development Dimension - Aid for Trade: Making It Effective. Rep. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and 


Integrated Framework. Integrated Framework for Trade-related Technical Assistance. Web. Sept. 2010. . 

ITC’s Role in Aid for Trade in Africa. Rep. Geneva: International Trade Centre, 2008. 

ITC’s Role in Aid for Trade in South America. Rep. Geneva: International Trade Centre, 2008. 

“JITAP General Information.” JITAP - Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

“Oita OVOP International Exchange Promotion Committee.” OVOP. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

“PACT I ACHIEVEMENTS - International Trade Centre - ITC.” International Trade Centre - ITC - Export Impact for 

Good. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

Recommendations from The Task Force on Aid for Trade. Publication. Geneva: World Trade Organization, 2006. Print. 

Staffs of the IMF and the World Bank. Aid for Trade: Harnessing the Global Economy for Economic Development. Rep. no. 

DC2007-0019. IMF and World Bank, 28 Sept. 2007. Web. Aug. 2010. . 

“TCBoost Resources | TCBoost.” TCBoost - Supporting Trade Capacity Building Worldwide. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

Topulos, Katherine. “GATT/WTO.” Duke Law: Library and Technology. Duke Law, Nov. 2009. Web. Aug. 2010. . 

U.S. Agency for International Development. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

Views on Aid for Trade by Multilateral Organisations: World Bank, ITC and IMF. Publication. Geneva: IMF and World Bank, 

2008. Print. 

Wahlin, Willhemina, and Kaoru Natsuda. “Japan’s Rural Entrepreneurial Scheme Goes Abroad.” Japan Inc. 15 Jan. 

2008. Web. Aug. 2010. . 

Working Together to Enable LDCs to Be Active Players and Beneficiaries of the Global Trading System. Publication. Geneva: 

Integrated Framework. Print. 

World Trade Organization - Home Page. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

Topic B: Trade and the Environment 

Bates, By Jenny. “PPI: Multilateral Environmental Agreements and the World Trade Organization by Jenny 


Castleman, Barry. WTO Confidential: The Case of Asbestos. Rep. Baltimore: International Agencies and Health, 2001. 

Print. 

“Doha Development Agenda.” International Trade Centre - ITC - Export Impact for Good. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

Ekins, Paul. Trade and Environment. Rep. Wisconsin: International Society for Ecological Economics, 2003. Print. 

“Environment and Trade: A Handbook - Second Edition.” International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). 

Oct. 2005. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

Globalization and the Environment: Lessons from America. Washington D.C.: Heinrich Boll Foundation, 2004. Print. 

24 



Halle, Mark, and Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz. Trade and Environment: A Resource Handbook. Ed. Adil Najam. International 

Trade Centre, 2005. Print. 

Jackson, John H. World Trade Rules and Environmental Policies: Congruence or Conflict. School of Law, Washington 


Opening Markets for Environmental Goods and Services. Rep. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and 


Trade Liberalization and the Environment in Vietnam. Geneva: World Bank, 2006. Print. 

U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Trade and Environment: Conflicts and 

Opportunities, OTA-BP-ITE-94 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, May 

1992). 

“WTO | Environment - Disputes 4.” World Trade Organization - Home Page. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

“WTO | Environment - Disputes 8.” World Trade Organization - Home Page. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. . 

WTO Special Studies 4. Rep. no. ISBN 92-870-1211-3. Geneva: World Trade Organization, 1999. Print. 


25

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