WTO Public Forum 2021, Organizer Raymond Saner, CSEND-DD, Geneva

BACKGROUND

This session focuses on the sub-theme of PF21, “Strengthening the Multilateral Trading System”. The panelists will assess how plurilateral
agreements and plurilateral initiatives could be fully mulilateralized or conclude that plurilaterals will remain outside the WTO context.

Speakers and the audience will be invited to ponder the following questions:

1.      To what extent is it possible to “multilateralize” plurilateralism today (20 years into the Doha  Round Negotiations with no agreement in sight
and increasing numbers of FTAs/RTAs)?

2.      What are the different “options” to negotiate plurilateral agreements   (with or without MFN)?

3.      What are the implications of plurilateral agreements for the multilateral trading system    (Leading to more integration or fragmentation of the trading system)?

4.      Besides Services, Environmental Goods, Investment, could other trade areas be negotiated  through plurilateral approaches? If so, which areas?

5.      What are the strategies and tactics available to developing and least developed countries in the negotiation of plurilateral agreements?

Raymond Saner & Lichia Yiu, (2021) “Forced Labor of Migrant Workers on Fishing Ships: Holding Management and Governments Accountable”, in Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021, A. Farazmand (ed.), Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_4347-1

This article focuses on a very problematic aspect of migration, namely, forced labor of migrants held captive on fishing ships which is a well- known violation of human and labor rights, but despite efforts made by human rights defenders and international organizations, the abusive and sometimes violent treatment of migrant-fishermen continues.

Fondation pour les études et recherches sur le développement international (FERDI) Working Paper 280, December 2020, Paris Authors: Raymond Saner, Magdi Farahat, Luca Chiarato and Lichia Yiu he authors assess to what extent the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) provides assistance to LDCs through its “Diagnostic Trade Integration Study (DTIS)” towards more effective trade and development policies. […]

Since the agreements on the 2030 Agenda and the Financing of development (AAAA) agreement in 2015, the member countries of the United Nations have agreed that domestic and foreign direct investment are expected to be aligned with the 2030 Agenda.
The 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda are supposed to be achieved in an integrated manner focusing at the same time on social, economic and environmental sustainability and be implemented in a transparent, inclusive and participatory manner.

In order to achieve these 17 goals and guiding principles, very substantial financial investment will be required. According to the 2014 World Investment Report (WIR) by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), approximately 4 trillion USD will be required every year in developing countries alone for the SDGs to be achieved by2030.

Historically, China had prior experience in interacting with Africa.  In the first half of 15^th Century, Admiral Zhen reached Madagascar already with his fleet of “treasure boats”.  Traders from the neighboring countries and dominions joint the fleet in order to benefit from the trading opportunities. This was the first official trade mission by the Chinese Ming Emperor.  Such missions continued for more than 15 years and came to a halt. The Belt and Road Initiative is a systematic effort of the Chinese government to foster a stronger economic and political link with its neighbours in the Southeast Asia and beyond reaching the shore of Africa once again.  In the geopolitical context of the post cold war period and the accelerated economic and technological catching up by China, such a concerted effort like BRI is causing concerns and anxieties in many quarters. Wherever there is a Chinese international trade policy, Chinese companies follow.  Interactions with the host countries, either the community or the labour force or suppliers, is achieving mixed results.

Raymond Saner; University of Basel & Lichia Yiu; CSEND, Geneva

Paper and Presentation given during the 6th Conference of “Regulating for Decent Work” (RDW) on Living Wages and the Sustainable Development Goals: Workers’ Well-being in the Context of Employment and Costs of Living
ILO, Geneva, July 2019

The 2030 Agenda focuses on employment and decent work for all. SDG 8 was listed as one of the thematic topics of the 2019 High Level Political Forum in July 2019 in New York. All member countries of the United Nations were invited to present their implementation of the SDGs in general and of SDG 8 in particular. This paper and this presentation proposed to shed light on SDG 8 and how this goal relates to Living Wage.

Raymond Saner, Amaka Uchegbu and Lichia Yiu; 2019

The current regulatory environment of significance to the PMSC industry is ambiguous as a result of porous legal boundaries and incongruent policies due to competing political and judicial systems: national, regional, and international. Accordingly, it is essential to consider how ambiguities could be reduced and turned into legal certainty through both hard and soft law to prevent human rights abuses.

Climate Warming continues and the increase in world temperature has reached alarming heights. Taking into account the warning of the great majority of scientists, there is real risk that keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is seriously in jeopardy and countries have to do much more to honour their commitments given at the Paris Agreement. Business as usual that is publically confessing good intentions (fighting climate change) while at the same time insisting on conventional IP protection needs to be reassessed and solutions be found at the coming HLPF to accelerate the use of renewable energy sources across the globe for the benefit of all.

A recurrent problem in international organizations is the disappearance of institutional history and knowledge. The same can be said about international agreements unless the same key drafters/negotiators are involved in subsequent agreements which is rarely the case. This study provides an example how institutional memory embedded in international agreements can be preserved for the benefit of the next generation of policy negotiators. Hence, as a contribution to the broader reflection on how to align National Sustainable Development Plans with the implementation plan of 2030 Agenda, the purpose of the study is to present a comparative analysis of the 2030 Agenda with 6 outcome documents that were negotiated and agreed by the UN member countries in the domain of sustainability. This analysis aims to identify issues not covered or “unfinished business” in the 2030 Agenda and addressed in a more comprehensive manner or from different perspectives. The list of agreements and outcome documents included are Agenda 21, Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21, Outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, The Paris Agreement and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development.