Trade

We delve into the Global South's trade governance challenges and expansion issues, examining their impact on human and environmental rights. We propose actionable recommendations for governments to align international trade with development objectives and safeguard the rights of people in the Global South.

Trade and investment rules have prodded the transfer of control of public services to private corporations, favored cheap imports from developed countries to the detriment of local producers, and allowed international corporations to extract the value from cheaply paid labor and natural resources from developing countries. These agreements have also expanded the influence of corporations in policy making for development. Trade relations need a fundamental overhaul to foster job creation, income generation, and the development of domestic capabilities, while also facilitating access to life-saving technologies and medications. Additionally, trade should play a role in alleviating, rather than exacerbating, global crises in human rights, economic management, debt, healthcare, and climate change.

The Challenge

Trade and investment agreements, whether negotiated within the WTO or through bilateral or plurilateral discussions, often perpetuate and exacerbate colonial-era power imbalances between Global North countries and Global South countries. These unequal trade dynamics, largely dictated by advanced economies, have entrenched commodity dependence in approximately two-thirds of Global South countries, affecting 101 nations worldwide. Commodity dependence, characterized by a significant portion of merchandise exports being primary goods, leaves affected Global South countries highly susceptible to fluctuations in commodity prices and disruptions in global trade. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced in African countries, which continue to grapple with the legacy of colonial extractivism, where they served primarily as sources of inexpensive raw materials for more Global North countries' economies

Trade liberalization and investment protection measures in the WTO and other treaties are reinforcing neoliberal policies. Governments are bound by legally-binding agreements to safeguard foreign investments and open their markets to foreign products and businesses, often compromising their ability to fulfill commitments to environmental and human rights conventions.

Our Recommendations

The CS FfD Mechanism advocates for:

Assessing the developmental impacts of current trade and investment frameworks

Regular evaluations should occur within the UN under the FfD process to analyze changes in binding trade and investment agreements, including those at the WTO. These evaluations should focus on their effects on the policy flexibility of developing countries in achieving their development, climate, and human rights objectives.
Reach a multilateral agreement for the coordinated and permanent cessation of Investor-State-Dispute-Settlement (ISDS) cases and non-compliance or breach of existing trade and investment commitments. This includes Intellectual Property Rights regulations through agreements such as TRIPs and TRIPs plus, if they contradict public policy goals, including economic and health objectives.
Conclude an internationally binding instrument to regulate the activities of transnational corporations in line with international human rights law. This entails holding them accountable for human rights violations and supporting ongoing negotiations for the UN Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights under the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights.
Reach a multilateral agreement for non-compliance or breach of existing commitments under trade and investment agreements, including intellectual property rights regulations, if they eliminate or limit policy space for pursuing public policy goals.
Reach a multilateral agreement that reaffirms, updates and strengthens the principle of special and differential treatment (S&D).
Ban unilateral trade measures (UTMs) on grounds of sustainability and adopt a balanced and equitable approach to trade and sustainability.