Seizing the future: the South, sustainable development and international trade

The failure at Seattle to agree the mandate for a new round of trade negoti ations represents a dual crisis, not only for the trade community, but also for those supporting a shift to sustainable development, Ae the root of th e crisis Lies the North-South faultline, with an embedded sense of inequity keeping developing countries forever wary of the industrialized countries, not least on linkages between trade and the environment. But Seattle also showed that the South's current non-strategy towards trade and environment- opposing any formal linkage within the WTO, for example-is flawed. As a res ult, the South is now seen as the global scapegoat for inaction on trade an d environment, and has shut itself out of opportunities to shape the direct ion of the debate. Furthermore, trade and environmental factors are being p rogressively linked in the marketplace-not because of the WTO, but in spite of it. The challenge for the South is to take a more proactive approach, generatin g a positive agenda for change based on issues of sustainable livelihoods, environmental justice and sustainable development more broadly. One startin g point is to test current policy positions against the alternative visions of the future-for example, through scenario planning-and to develop a robu st 'no regrets' programme for engagement. The South has the most to gain fr om a world structured around the norms of sustainable development, and, as a result, it has the primary responsibility for reorienting the goals of tr ade away from the Limited agenda of 'free trade', towards the more inclusiv e programme of 'sustainable trade'. Whether this reorientation takes place, and whether the South takes a hand in shaping this process, will be one of the central questions for the years ahead.