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3 - Natural Resources Management in the Sustainable Development Goals Era

Insights from World Trade Organization Case Law

from Part I - Penetration and Diffusion of the Sustainable Development Goals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
Ilaria Espa
Edited by
Cosimo Beverelli ,
Jürgen Kurtz  and
Damian Raess
Cosimo Beverelli
Affiliation:
World Trade Organization
Jürgen Kurtz
Affiliation:
European University Institute, Florence
Damian Raess
Affiliation:
World Trade Institute, University of Bern
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Summary

This chapter assesses whether the law and practice of the WTO have been sufficiently aligning with the international law principle of sustainable use of natural resources as enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and recognized in the International Law Association New Delhi Declaration. Focusing on how relevant WTO rules and exceptions have been interpreted in recent WTO cases revolving around the notion of conservation under Article XX(g) General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and Article 2 Technical Barriers to Trade, it finds that such provisions have been interpreted in a way that preserves sufficient flexibility for members to pursue sustainable natural resources management goals through trade-related policy instruments (even when they are unilateral measures with extraterritorial reach). Interestingly enough from a sustainable natural resources management standpoint, the chapter stresses that WTO dispute settlement bodies have not only consistently broadened the reach of the GATT conservation exception in line with the principle of sustainable use of natural resources, but also significantly preserved the ‘environmental’ (i.e. conservation-related) connotation of sustainable natural resources management.

Keywords

sustainable developmentWorld Trade Organizationnatural resources managementSustainable Development Goalsaccess to natural resourcesprocesses and production methodssustainable use
Type
Chapter
Information
International Trade, Investment, and the Sustainable Development Goals
World Trade Forum
 , pp. 76 - 108
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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