Quantity and Quality. Assessment of sustainability impacts of trade agreements

Dommen, Caroline; Bürgi, Elisabeth (January 2022). Quantity and Quality. Assessment of sustainability impacts of trade agreements (Unpublished). In: Trade and Sustainability Hub. Virtual. 3 December 2021.

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Text (Quantity and Quality. Assessment of sustainability impacts of trade agreements) Quality_and_Quantity_-_Ex_ante_SIAs_of_trade_-_Report_of_an_expert_discussion_at_IISD_Trade___Sustainability_Hub__3rd_December_2021__cdeb.pdf - Presentation Available under License BORIS Standard License. Download (272kB) | Preview

The breadth and depth of today’s trade agreements and the wide range of their effects pose a real challenge for assessing their potential impacts. Yet precisely their comprehensiveness makes assessment all the more necessary. A number of methodologies for assessment exist, and State practice is evolving as recognition grows of the need to respond to distributional, sustainability and social impacts of trade and as new tools and approaches emerge for assessing impacts of trade on a range of policies. Criticisms have also been leveled at the ex ante impact assessments (IAs) carried out so far. They have frequently been carried out too late to influence negotiations. Some have been framed too narrowly and others too broadly. Stakeholder participation tends to be sub-optimal. And in many cases, the IA findings are not taken into account in the final trade agreement.

This session aimed to demonstrate that it is possible to improve our understanding of likely impacts of trade agreements on a range of sustainability and social objectives. Presenters discussed different methodological approaches to ex ante sustainability1 assessments of trade agreements and how these may be combined in order to get optimal results. The session addressed how conventional economic modelling tools work, and gave some examples of how they can be developed to better reflect social issues. The presentations included illustrations from ex ante assessments of the planned trade agreement between the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and Mercosur (EMFTA). Panelists and participants agreed that (ex ante) impact assessment should ideally include qualitative and quantitative aspects, and that governments should improve their communication about the objectives and planned contents of trade agreements.

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