Trade, Biodiversity and
Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs)

The emerging relevance of environmental debates and trade in sustainable development is critical for national and regional on economic development policies. The debates at Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) such as Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have more focus on WTO. These debates coupled with the review of national realization of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (especially Goals 7 and 8) assume importance in the light of the forthcoming Ministerial Meeting of WTO in Hong Kong as the trade debates consider environment and development more inclusively.

In the National and Sub-regional GBF Sessions at New Delhi there was a detailed discussion on the trade, environment and development linkages. The forum discussed at length the emergence of SAFTA and it implications on the environment apart from the broad issues of global relevance like the issue of TRIPs, biotechnology and biodiversity.