International

• Sober Reflection: Considering the Rush to Regionalism
  This paper, prepared as a contribution to the Sustainable Development Policy Institute's seventh annual Sustainable Development Conference, Troubled Times: Sustainable Development and Governance in the Age of Extremes, asks whether the rush to regionalism in international trade and investment benefits developing countries.

• Lessons Learned on Trade and Sustainable Development
  This book distills the lessons from six years of research undertaken by and for the Trade Knowledge Network (1998 - 2004). It draws on in-country research, thematic research and workshop papers to identify the key issues, and explores in depth what the TKN research has to say about them. The result is an excellent primer on the issues faced by the South in the area of trade and sustainable development.

• New Views of Trade and Sustainable Development: Using Sen's Conception of Development to Re-Examine the Debates - Full Report
  This paper argues that the current trade and sustainable development debates use a concept of sustainable development that in effect assumes economic growth equals development. By using the definition of development propounded by Nobel-laureate Amartya Sen, the paper re-examines the debates, and calls for a new direction in research and policy focused on trade liberalization's impacts on human freedoms, and the institutions that foster those freedoms.

• Trade in Domestically Prohibited Goods
  This paper looks at the export of domestically prohibited goods—chemicals (including pesticides and fertilizers), hazardous wastes, pharmaceuticals and consumer products—and the challenges it poses for sustainable development. It surveys the complex web of instruments for addressing those challenges, including information exchange mechanisms, voluntary agreements, binding international agreements and agreements under negotiation.

Malawi - The University of Malawi – The Polytechnic

• Tobacco Revenue Management: Malawi case study
  Nelson Nsiku, Willings Botha - The University of Malawi - the Polytechnic, 2007
  Commodity price volatility has been tremendously problematic in the past. When revenues are high they tend to distort fiscal responsibility and encourage corruption. When revenues slump they slash government revenues, drive unemployment, increase national debt, and undermine health and education spending. This is not a new problem. The international community and domestic governments have tried many different ways to stabilize prices: quota systems, commodity agreements, marketing boards, compensatory funds and price hedging on futures markets. Few, if any, of these mechanisms have been entirely successful.

  In 2003, tobacco production made up nearly 60 per cent of Malawi's exports. The international price of tobacco is an important determinant of Malawi's economic growth and the fluctuating price of tobacco has presented a serious challenge to national fiscal management. One of a series of seven case studies that examines national responses to the commodity price problem, this study focuses on how Malawi has addressed price volatility in its tobacco sector.

Singapore - SIIA

• Commodity Income Management: Selected Southeast Asian Economies
  Hank Lim, Lim Tai Wei - Singapore Institute for International Affairs, 2007
  Commodity price volatility has been tremendously problematic in the past. When revenues are high they tend to distort fiscal responsibility and encourage corruption. When revenues slump they slash government revenues, drive unemployment, increase national debt, and undermine health and education spending. This is not a new problem. The international community and domestic governments have tried many different ways to stabilize prices: quota systems, commodity agreements, marketing boards, compensatory funds and price hedging on futures markets. Few, if any, of these mechanisms have been entirely successful.

  In Southeast Asia, as in other developing regions, this problem is exacerbated by the fact that there are high levels of economic reliance on commodities, and that the price and income associated with these goods tend to be very sensitive to market fluctuations. To address these challenges, each country must respond with unique policies for managing and planning the exploitation and sale of their specific commodities. One of a series of seven case studies that examines national responses to the commodity price problem, this paper focuses on the commodities considered most crucial to two economies in the ASEAN region: coffee in Vietnam and palm oil in Malaysia.