Chile - RIDES

• International trade and sustainable tourism in Chile: Preliminary assessment of the sustainability of tourism in Chile in the context of current trade liberalization
  Since the 1970s Chile adopted an exceptionally successful model of trade liberalization which has given the country the highest growth index in the region. In spite of this challenges abound, including a huge gap in social equality, the need to overcome structural poverty, and the necessity of protecting an increasingly vulnerable environment. This study attempts to understand Chile’s institutional capacity to foment the sustainable growth of tourism and, through a preliminary assessment of the sustainability of the sector, make an effort to point out the linkages between the international trade of this service and the effect such trade has on Chile.

Africa - TIPS

• International Trade in Services and Sustainable Development: The Case of Tourism in South Africa - Full Report
  Tourism is an important services sector identified by the government as a major contributor to job creation, economic growth and poverty relief objectives. However, certain constraints to tourism growth have been identified, such as a lack of transparent investment incentives to attract investors; a scarcity of needed infrastructure in regions with the strongest natural resource base for tourism; inadequate tourism education; and inadequate marketing of South Africa as a long-haul tourism and business centre. This research on the tourism sector focuses on the nature of trade liberalization and deregulation within a sustainable development framework.

• Sustainable Development: The Case of Energy in South Africa - Full Report
  Energy is central to achieving the interrelated economic, social and environmental aims of sustainable development and energy services play a crucial role in providing efficient access to energy in support of development. Developing countries are faced with a number of challenges in this regard, such as achieving more reliable and efficient access to energy for domestic consumption and production, growing their share in the trade of energy goods and services, and mitigating adverse environmental impacts from energy activities. The main objective of this study is to look at what dominates South Africa's energy supply – coal-based energy – with an emphasis on electricity.

Pakistan - SDPI

Workshop Papers and Reports

• Forthcoming Trade Negotiations: Identifying Pakistan's Interests (A paper prepared for the Pakistan Mission in Geneva)
  This paper reviews Pakistan's negotiating position heading into the WTO's Third Ministerial Conference in December 1999. It argues that Pakistan's negotiating stance (and that of many developing countries) is ineffective because it is reactive, and looks at the environment-trade relationship as a concrete example of this problem.

China - CAITEC

• Green Box Support Measures Under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture and Chinese Agricultural Sustainable Development - Summary
  China (CAITEC): This study examines the Chinese position relative to the ongoing negotiations on the Agreement on Agriculture and addresses the challenges of sustainable development in agriculture arising from structural changes generated from markets opening under the current international framework. The paper states the goal of agro-policy should be diverted from merely seeking quantity, as in the past, to more diversified and balanced development, taking as priority environmental protection, income growth for local farmers, and enhancement of product quality. The paper suggests the role of Green Box measures and WTO disciplines on agricultural support needs to be reformed to incorporate more mechanisms that support sustainable agriculture in developing countries and minimize the trade distorting effects that harm the agriculture and rural community of the developing countries.

International

• Agri-Environment and Rural Development in the Doha Round - Full Report - Summary
  Agri-Environment and Rural Development in the Doha Round: Aimed at shedding light on the possible options for developing countries to make use of agri-environmental and rural development measures within the framework of the WTO, this paper surveys those programs used in the Quad that are considered non- or, at most, minimally trade distorting, non-discriminatory and otherwise consistent with current WTO rules. Furthermore, it tries to illustrate the possible outcomes in the ongoing negotiations in the WTO on the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) from a developing country viewpoint, related to the types of mechanisms surveyed above.

• Preserving Policy Space for Sustainable Development: The Subsidies Agreement at the WTO - Full Report - Commentary
  This paper addresses the need to preserve the ability of nations to use subsidies in order to correct distortions in the global economy and spur innovation for sustainable development. It shows that the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) created significant policy space for nations to address technological, poverty and environmental problems—all seminal issues for sustainable development—but that such space no longer exists.

• Sustainable Tourism in St. Lucia: A Sustainability Assessment of Trade and Liberalization in Tourism-services - Full Report
  This paper examines the role played by trade and liberalization in tourism services in fostering or constraining sustainable development. In short, it explores the question: what are the opportunities and barriers to achieving sustainable development through trade in tourism services? The paper draws on relevant current literature, as well as existing data on tourism services in St. Lucia, a popular tourism destination in the Eastern Caribbean.