Trade

International trade rules have significant impacts on environmental law and policy, at the domestic, regional and global levels. At the World Trade Organization (WTO), dispute settlement tribunals are increasingly called to decide on environment- and health-related questions. Can governments treat products differently based on environmental considerations? Can they block the import of highly carcinogenic asbestos-containing products or genetically modified crops?

Wood product trade in the Central American-Dominican Republic region currently poses great challenges for the systems employed to report and verify statistical information. Through the work of a regional group of consultants and local contributors, a regional statistical analysis was performed regarding wood trade between Central American countries and the Dominican Republic (CA-DR region), and between the region and main external markets.

El comercio de productos de madera en la región de Centroamérica y la República Dominicana presenta en la actualidad grandes retos en cuanto a su sistema de reporte y verificación de estadísticas. Mediante el trabajo de un grupo regional de consultores y colaboradores nacionales, se hizo un análisis estadístico regional sobre el comercio de madera entre los países de América Central y la República Dominicana (región AC-RD), y entre la región y los principales mercados

How can the poorer countries of the world be helped to help themselves through freer, fairer trade? This book suggests a radical and realistic new model for managing trading relationships between the richest and the poorest countries. The approach is designed to open up markets in the interests of all and not just the most powerful economies, to ensure that trade promotes development, and to minimise the costs of adjustments.

The aim of the present report is to examine the changing context within which the reptile skin trade has existed (“where we came from”), the extent of the current industry and its regulatory strengths and weaknesses (“where we are now”), and what the future can or should bring (“where we go from here”).

This paper illustrates the potential for developing sustainable environment management practices such as BioTrade in Latin America. These results are presented through case studies built on the experiences of BioTrade practitioners and programmes at the national, regional and international levels such as SMEs, multinational corporations (MNCs), financial entities and clusters.

The key message of this publication is that the occurrence of the global economic and financial crisis and the interrelated climate, food, and water crises offers a window of opportunity to embark on a path of more resilient and sustainable economic growth. The key challenge is to avoid responding to the crises with measures that perpetuate economically, socially and environmentally unsustainable production and consumption patterns.