Trade, Investment and Sustainable Development News Archive

2003

Field Organising Trade and Policy Reform Event: The SUSTRA network is based on a multidisciplinary team of 11 partners coming from 6 European countries. It includes economists, political scientists, sociologists, philosophers and lawyers. It is financed by the European Union's 5th Framework Programme under the Key Action "improving the socio-economic knowledge base".

The workshop identified various stakeholders within Member States and across the EU that have a vested interest in key sectors such as forestry, energy (climate change), agriculture reform and trade in GMOs. The workshop made an assessment of their influence on trade policy reform in EU institutions and in various international processes, such as the WTO.

For full programme details and PPT presentations, please go to the SUSTRA website.

Field at Cancún: From 10 to 14 September 2003, WTO member states met in Cancun, Mexico for the fifth WTO Ministerial meeting. The main aim of the meeting was to take stock of progress in the negotiations and other work under the Doha Development Agenda.... More

Pre-Cancún Trade and the Environment Workshop: From 30 July to 1 August 2003 FIELD, along with UNCTAD and the International Institute on Trade and Development (ITD), co-organised a workshop in Bangkok, as part of a project on Building Capacity for Improved Policy Making and Negotiation on Key Trade and Environment Issues. In preparation for the WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Cancún in September, the workshop was a brainstorming session on paragraphs 31 and 32 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, and participants looked at recent relevant developments and negotiations. For more information on the Workshop, please see the UNCTAD Website.

FIELD Co-Hosts Workshop on International Regulation of Multinationals: On 9 July 2003, FIELD, in collaboration with Christian Aid and the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), co-hosted a legal workshop in London addressing the social and environmental impact of multinational corporations and looking at their possible regulation in an international context. The workshop focused primarily on the activities of multinationals operating in developing countries, and looked at the variety of problems arising from their activities. The objective of the legal workshop was to produce an outline of the elements required for the international regulation of multinationals. Click here for the Workshop Agenda, and watch this space for the Workshop Report.

A one-day follow up policy workshop is planned to encourage the NGO community to look at the policy options and possible models for multinational regulation.

SUSTRA Meeting: FIELD participated in the SUSTRA workshop on Sustainability Impact Assessment of Trade Agreements and New Approaches to Governance, on 27-28 March 2003. More information can be found at http://www.agro-montpellier.fr/sustra/ .

Heinrich Böll Public Hearing - The EU between Jo'burg follow-up and Cancun politics - How to set the right framework for investment rules: FIELD TISD lawyer, Alice Palmer attended this public hearing at the European Parliament in March 2003. The hearing, organised by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, was attended by the European Commission, the Council and the European Parliament, as well as NGO representatives and members of the public.

The hearing assessed the outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) on globalisation, trade and corporate accountability, as well as aspects of the EU's services liberalisation and investment agenda relating to sustainable development. It also elaborated on alternatives to trade and investment liberalisation. Alice gave a presentation on 'The potential for European Action on Corporate Accountability'.

More information on the event can be found here.

Click here to go directly to Alice's presentation.