Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 9 • Number 3 • 2nd February 2005
Resources
Call for Comments
MODEL INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT AGREEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. Draft, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), January 2005. IISD has prepared a model international investment agreement in an effort to update the current model, developed almost 50 years ago, with its near-exclusive focus on the rights of foreign investors. IISD’s draft model agreement starts from the premise that the purpose for such agreements is to foster foreign investment that is supportive of development aspirations for developing countries as well as sustainable development requirements in both the North and South. The draft text outlines a clear set of provisions that seek to balance the rights and obligations of investors, host states and home states and puts forward proposals to modify the highly problematic investor-state arbitration system. IISD is now in the process of seeking public input on the draft it has produced. Comments should be sent to modelagreement@iisd.ca by 7 February 2005. The draft text and more information on the model agreement are available at http://www.iisd.org/investment/model_agreement.asp
ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION: AN INDEPENDENT EVALUATION OF THE WORLD BANK’S APPROACH TO GLOBAL PROGRAMS. By Uma Lele. World Bank, January 2005. The World Bank is an important participant in global programs and activities because its global reach, its ability to mobilize resources, and its multisectoral expertise position it well to deal with the challenges of globalization. This book develops lessons for the Bank on program selectivity, design, implementation, governance, management, financing and evaluation. The book also identifies areas where further Bank action on its global-level strategy and programming is needed to improve the global program effectiveness. For more information and access to the report visit http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=4498463
THE RUSH TO REGIONALISM: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND REGIONAL/BILATERAL APPROACHES TO TRADE AND INVESTMENT LIBERALIZATION. By Aaron Cosbey, Simon Tay, Hank Lim. International Institute for Sustainable Development and International Development Research Centre, 2005. This paper aims to set out the issues of importance in addressing the links between sustainable development and the rush to sign regional trade agreements. It describes the trends in regional agreements, surveys current practice and asks how the agreements address a number of key issues of importance to sustainable development in the context of economic development and environment. It then sets out a number of key themes, asking what we know and do not know about each. The concluding section describes the state of current research as it relates these themes. For more information and access to the report visit http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2005/trade_rush_region.pdf
SETTING THE TRADE POLICY AGENDA: WHAT ROLES FOR ECONOMISTS? By Kym Anderson. International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, December 2004. Economists have affected the agenda for domestic policy reform as well as influenced the trade policy agenda for establishing multilateral trade rules, disciplines and procedures and for negotiating MFN and preferential reductions in trade barriers and subsidies. The report aims to examine the contribution made by the economics profession to setting the agenda for trade policy formation and its reform at various levels. One might argue that the contribution has been ineffective — the gains from free trade have been well-known for over 200 years, but every country still imposes trade barriers. The paper quantifies these trade distortions, and looks at where trade economists’ efforts in agenda-setting need to be focused in the years ahead. For more information and access to the report visit http://agecon.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/pdf_view.pl?paperid=15463&ftype=.pdf