IIED Links:

Related Links:

The promotion of sustainable foreign direct investment in South America: opportunities for cooperation between the European Union and South America
Annie Dufey, July 2004

In collaboration with Recursos e Investigaciones para el Desarrollo Sustentable (RIDES), IIED organised a workshop in Santiago de Chile in July 2004 on the South American perspective on the EU’s sustainable development policy. Annie Dufey presented her paper on the promotion of sustainable FDI in South America and opportunities for EU/South American co-operation

View pdf (89k English)

View pdf (116k Spanish)

Corporate Responsibility and the Future of the International Trade and Investment Agenda
Halina Ward and Bernice Lee, October 2003

This first paper in the CRED Perspectives Series examines the congruence and conflicts between the trade, investment and corporate responsibility agendas.

View pdf (39k)

Standards and sustainable trade. A sectoral analysis for the proposed sustainable trade and innovation centre (STIC)
Bill Vorley, Dilys Roe, Steve Bass, April 2002

In the search for alternative markets in face of globalisation, the export of environmentally friendly and socially preferred goods and services from the South is increasingly sold as a developmental ‘win-win-win’, providing trade opportunities which can simultaneously alleviate poverty and protect the environment. The challenge is to connect the rhetoric of sustainable trade with reality, bridging the gaps between emerging practices such as sustainable forestry, organic agriculture, and ecotourism with markets for small- and mid-sized producers and ntrepreneurs, who are the intended beneficiaries.

The needs of sustainability and the needs of a liberalised trading system are very different.

Within the development debate, advocacy and research on competitiveness, trade and business development on one hand and on poverty alleviation on the other, often take place in separate camps. In both cases, “the separate groups are like two adventurers following roughly parallel paths that do not cross”. Opportunities for complementarities are therefore missed.

This report sets out to unpack the issues around standards for sustainability and market access, using case studies from food, forestry and tourism as examples. Within the plethora of grades and standards we focus on voluntary environmental and social process standards, certification systems and codes, usually developed by the private sector, sometimes in partnership with government.

The authors conclude with a set of recommendations for the establishment of a Sustainable Trade and Innovation Centre.

View pdf (191k)

Copyright © 2005 International Institute for Environment and Development.
All rights reserved.
3 Endsleigh Street, London WC1H 0DD, email: info@iied.org.
tel: +44 (0) 20 7388 2117, fax: +44 (0) 20 7388 2826.
UK Registered charity no. 800066.

Contact the Web Developer | Legal Notice