The current trade regime dictates that the industrialized world is a net importer of the natural world from other regions. Non-industrialised regions are net exporters of their
natural resources, often with severe local impacts. They are under pressure to continue exporting in order to maintain a positive trade balance.
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01 | Trade Ecology
Account for thecosts of exportingthe natural world
Distance between production and consumption should be as short as is reasonably possible. Many food products and a range of consumer goods would
ideally be sourced at a regional level. If less natural resources were used for export, these regions would gain breathing-space for the regeneration of their ecosystems.
Large multinational corporations and top-down global supply chains currently block trade participation by creating barriers of entry to new actors. Smaller economic actors are confined to the
status of suppliers of a specific global value chain or to local niche markets. The system prevents smaller economic actors from having a fair chance to participate in trade flows.
All economic actors must have a fair chance to participate in trade within and beyond borders. Smaller actors need to be enabled to network transnationally by easing intellectual property rights for climate technologies and by promoting a high degree of
technology transfer within such networks. Multinational corporations must also pay the real price of production that smaller economic actors need to pay, with regard to taxes, enforcement of labour rights and strict environmental requirements.
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04 | Trade in Services
Ensure public servicesand personal dataare not treated as‘tradable’commodities
While the digitalisation of service provision has the promise of reducing material inputs, it has also led to an increase in the power of service-based multinationals. Human well-being could worsen if the rules set in trade agreements further
enhance this power. This is particularly important when we consider how digital services use our personal data today. We need to also ensure that public services are not erased over time as changes in the services market develop.
We need a broad public and parliamentary debate about what we offer trade partners in the field of e-commerce and appropriate data privacy conditions. That debate needs to take place now and before the EU enters into negotiations with trade partners about
e-commerce chapters in trade agreements. Public services should be fully excluded from all trade agreements the EU enters into. Governments should have the flexibility to create new public services in the future.
The global trade system functions by omitting the costs relating to the use of the planet's natural resources. It is also predicated on existing gender inequalities that support economic activity.
Roles traditionally taken up by women, such as unpaid care work or subsistence farming, are often unacknowledged, despite being integral to the functioning of the global economy.
The stereotype of female inferiority needs to be tackled. Trade policy should be designed in a way that avoids women contributing to production and services at the lower end of the skills ladder. It also needs to be recognised that most of the care work has been
women-led, which has kept wages low. Trade policy must contribute to change gender hierarchies, starting with mandatory equal pay and parental leave. Jobs must allow for an equal share of care work in the household between men and women.
image credits: reuters
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06 | Trade Solidarity
Cultivate trade thatdoesn’t inflict damageon the livelihoodsof others
Productive gains are often achieved at the expense of the sustainability of livelihoods. Many less industrialised countries also find it hard to really gain from trade because “terms of trade” are stacked
against them. The commodity-exporting countries need to constantly increase the volume of their exports just to maintain their level of welfare.
image credits: BBC
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06 | Trade Solidarity
Cultivate trade thatdoesn’t inflict damageon the livelihoodsof others
We already have a voluntary system of fair trade whereby wealthy Western consumers choose to pay higher prices for products that have been produced in a way that does not exploit those in the world’s poorer countries. However, we need to move
beyond such voluntary schemes towards a trade system that is based on global solidarity. This requires a change of the rules in the WTO and a change in the way in which decisions at the WTO are being made.
We need legislation that requires and enables the tracing of supply chains to the origins of the raw materials and that puts the obligation of due diligence with regard to environmental, social and human rights on companies at each step of the
supply chain. The EU needs to reinforce its support to the sustainable development of the least developed countries, and do so within a multilateral framework that ensures their voices are heard.
12 bold stepswe can taketo tackle the crisis head on
