International trade, at roughly six trillion dollars per year, is a huge potential force for sustainable development by opening up new markets, exposing domestic firms to international practices, and bringing new investment and growth from trade that can create the necessary conditions for sustainable development and poverty alleviation on a scale unreachable by dwindling traditional official development assistance flows. Potential is only that, potential. Achieving these benefits depends on a number of factors, capacities and conditions for successful achievement of both economic growth and sustainable development.

Trade Knowledge Network (TKN) Partners in eight countries have conducted research and policy workshops on opportunities and challenges for achieving sustainable development goals in their country around specific sectors or trade agreements. TKN research organisations have explored issues which range among opportunities for achieving sustainable agriculture within the Agreement on Agriculture; to standards, labels, and market access in relation to organic products, GMOs, and shrimp aquaculture; to liberalization of electricity and tourism services. While the focus of research has differed from country to country, the learning and lessons which have emerged are of interest to all countries trying to find benefits and overcome challenges to integrating sustainable development goals into trade policy and practice.

This session will focus its discussion on how developing countries could make use of new developments within the framework of the WTO trade negotiations to promote sustainable development. To this end the discussion will draw on various case studies from various countries based on the experience and research as provided by the TKN partners and try to highlight the linkages between sustainable development, economic activity and market access at the domestic and international levels.

Panelists: Aaron Cosbey (IISD), Carlos Murrillo (CINPE), Nicola Borregaard (RIDES), Shaheen Rafi Khan (SDPI, Pakistan), Heike Baumüller (ICTSD)

14:30 pm	Introduction The Trade Knowledge Network: Linking Sustainable Development, National Trade issues and the WTO policies, David Boyer (International Institute for Sustainable Development)
14:45 pm	How Can Trade Stimulate Sustainable Development in Agriculture
	• Moderator: Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz (International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development) Green Markets: Often a Lost Opportunity for Developing Markets? A Case Study of Chile and The EU, Nicola Borregard (Recursos e Investigación para el Desarrollo Sustentable) New Views of Trade and Sustainable Development: Using Sen’s Conception of Development to Re-examine the Debates (Presentation), (Paper), Aaron Cosbey (International Institute for Sustainable Development) The Relation between Trade and Development of Sustainable Agriculture in Central America, Carlos Murrillo (Centro Internacional de Política Económica) Domestic Import Regulations for Genetically Modified Organisms and their Compatibility with WTO Rules: Some Key Issues, Heike Baumüller (International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development)
16:15 pm	Panel questions and discussion

David Boyer is the Associate at the International Institute for Sustainable Development and serves as Coordinator of the Trade Knowledge Network, an eight country consortium working with IISD to produce timely and informed research on trade and sustainable development. He is a practitioner in multi-stakeholder and community-based natural resource management, working at the nexus of environment, social and economic development.

Nicola Borregaard is Executive Director at Research and Resources for Sustainable Development, a Chilean Research Institute. She holds a PhD in Land Economy from Cambridge University, England. She has worked as Head of the Department for Environmental Economics at the Chilean National Commission on Environment, as Executive Director of the Center on Environmental Research and Planning, CIPMA, as a researcher and consultant for international and national agencies, and as lecturer in Chile and in Germany.

Aaron Cosbey is an Associate and Senior Advisor to the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Aaron Cosbey is an environmental economist specializing in the areas of trade and sustainable development, international environmental governance, and the greening of business/regulatory reform.

Carlos Murillo-Rodriguez is the Research Director of the International Centre of Economic Policy for Sustainable Developement (CINPE) at the Universidad Nacional (UNA), Costa Rica, where he is also a professor. Mr. Murillo serves as Chairman of the Inter-University Consortium for Sustainable Development, with the participation of Wageningen Agricultural University, Utrecht University, Tilburg University (The Netherlands) and UNA.

Heike Baumüller is Programme Manager for ICTSD’s natural-resource related work and Managing Editor of BRIDGES Trade BioRes, a biweekly newsletter covering issues related to trade and the sustainable use and conservation of biological resources. Her areas of work include biotechnology, intellectual property rights and environmental issues in relation to trade and sustainable development.

• Domestic Import Regulations for Genetically Modified Organisms and the Compatibility with WTO Rules - Some Key Issues. By Heike Baumuller, ICTSD.

• "Trade Knowledge Network Program Statement", by the Trade Knowlege Network.

• "Green Markets: Often a Lost Opportunity for Developing Countries", by Nicola Borregaard y Guillermo Geisse G., Anne Dufey, Juan Ladron de Guevara (Cnetre for Environmental Investigation and Planning, CIPMA, June 2003).

• "Mercados Verdes: Una oportunidad que requiere ser atendida" by Nicola Borregaard y Guillermo Geisse G., Anne Dufey, Juan Ladron de Guevara (Centro De Investigacion y Planificacion Del Medio Ambiante, CIPMA, December 2002)

• "The Costs and Benefits of Compliance with International Environmental Standards:Pakistan Case Study" , by Shahee Rafi Khan, Mahwash Saeed Qureshi, Shahrukh Rafi Khan, and Mahmood A. Khwaja (Sustainable Development Policy Institute, SPDI, June 2003)

• The Relationship between Trade and Sustainable Development of Agriculture in Central America
  Randall Arce, Adriana Campos, Greivin Herandez, Carlos Murillo, Carlos Pomareda, Max Valverde, Rolando Zamora (IISD, 2003)