Timeline: our work on trade and investment
1992-1994 - tracked the GATT Uruguay round, analysed draft agreements, developed recommendations for modifications. In closing stages of the round focused on ensuring that Ministerial Declaration on Trade and Environment and creation of the Committee on Trade and Environment provided adequate scope for necessary environmental reforms of GATT.
1994-1996 - closely monitored and analysed discussions and outputs of the Committee on Trade and Environment. Most effort focused on discussions of relationship between WTO rules and trade measures used to implement multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). Commissioned and published relevant legal analysis and undertook lobbying and campaigning in an effort to secure clarification of WTO rules favouring effective implementation of MEAs.
1995-1998 - participated in drafting of International Organisation of Standardisation (ISO) standards on eco-labelling, analysing their relationship with WTO rules and those of MEAs. Input to ISO process aimed at supporting verifiable, non/deceptive eco/labelling practices which enable customers to identify products causing less impact on the environment. Much of this work was directly or indirectly aimed at creating ISO standards supportive of timber certification by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
1996-1998 - engaged in the OECD negotiations on a Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), conducting and directing policy analysis.
1996-1999 - with the help of nine governments and the European Commission established an 18-member Expert Panel on Trade and Sustainable Development (EPTSD), comprised of government and intergovernmental officials, lawyers, academics, business representatives and NGOs.
This multistakeholder group has formulated a set of policy integration principles to merge trade, environment and development policy objectives, maximising synergies and minimising conflicts. These principles are being operationalised through the development of associated guidelines and policy tools, and are being applied to actual policy conflicts at national, regional and multilateral levels.
1997-1998 - intensively tracked, analysed and inputted to the formal WTO "shrimp-turtle" dispute. Directed production of two amicus curiae briefs and critiques of the original panel findings, and undertook associated press, campaigning and lobby work. The intense analysis and lobby work produced a favourable interpretation of WTO rules, giving greater recognition to international environmental agreements and protecting the environment from damage associated with trade.
1998-1999 - Participated in the WTO Third Ministerial Conference in Seattle, Canada on 30 November-3 December. WWF's reform recommendations at the WTO included calling for 'sustainability assessment' including in the areas of MEA-WTO relations, eco-labelling, agricultural trade liberalisation, dispute settlement, technical barriers to trade and the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement.
The policy analysis is integrated with lobbying and press activities closely aligned with the negotiating schedule of the Seattle Ministerial, where WWF had a large delegation of people including our Director General who spoke at the Civil Society Symposium organised by the WTO.
1999-2001 - Engaged at the WTO Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha Qatar with successful results launching negotiations to regulate the use and administration of fishing subsidies that are causing the collapse of fish stocks and degrading the global marine resource base, and postponing negotiations on foreign direct investment in the WTO (on the grounds that neither the WTO nor current intergovernmental discussions on investment are adequately oriented towards sustainable development).
With funding support from nine governments and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, WWF launched a three year 'Sustainability Assessment' project which aimed at reforming trade policy decision-making processes and their outcomes in favour of sustainable and equitable development.
WWF catalysed stakeholder-oriented sustainability assessments in key countries/regions, in conjunction with targeted advocacy for effective implementation of these assessments. Its ultimate objective is to catalyse and establish a process owned and trusted by local stakeholders, so that discussion and action on sustainability assessment of trade are pursued and strengthened even beyond this project's duration.
2002-2003 - WWF underwent rethinking and restructuring its overall agenda, including on cross cutting issues like trade and investment. The period was used to review the vision, goals and approach on how to ensure that trade work for sustainable development.
2004 - a new Trade and Investment Programme is launched with new capacity in key trading capitals not only in the north but also in the south, and a proactive agenda.
