Climate Change and the Trading System: Implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership

18 Pages Posted: 19 Nov 2015 Last revised: 9 Feb 2016

See all articles by Natassia Ciuriak

Natassia Ciuriak

Ciuriak Consulting Inc.

Dan Ciuriak

Ciuriak Consulting Inc.; Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI); C.D. Howe Institute; Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada; BKP Development Research & Consulting GmbH

Date Written: February 9, 2016

Abstract

This paper considers the implications of the shift of trade rule-making and liberalization from the World Trade Organization (WTO) to the mega-regional mode for the development of responses to climate change. We review developments at the interface between the trade system and climate change responses at the national, sub-national, corporate, and civil society levels, and evaluate the impact of the environmental provisions in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. We find that the shift of the main action in trade negotiations into the mega-regional forums is not a positive development for action on climate change. Effective action will be multilateral in scope, collective in nature, and policy-activist in design. From the perspective of interaction with trade rules, the coordinated industrial policies required to deliver a sustainable economy will likely require sanction under a multilateral environmental agreement. Armed with such an agreement, the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism could safeguard policy space while settling disputes. The mega-regionals will generate a system unfriendly to climate change policy, as they are plurilateral and exclusionary in scope, competitive in nature, and policy-restrictive in design. Moreover, they are leading in the development of investment and competition regimes that the WTO lacks. These latter regimes, which are increasingly important due to the high degree of trade and investment integration in the modern global economy, will be given teeth by investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms within the agreements. This militates against the evolution of a coherent and transparent body of climate-policy-friendly case law, which would be more likely under a WTO regime. Perhaps most importantly, as the weak outcome of the TPP shows, they are likely to use up trade negotiating coin without contributing to climate change responses.

Keywords: climate change, mega-regionals, UNFCC, dispute settlement, industrial policy, WTO, TPP, TTIP, TISA, RCEP

JEL Classification: F13

Suggested Citation

Ciuriak, Natassia and Ciuriak, Dan, Climate Change and the Trading System: Implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (February 9, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2692272 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2692272

Natassia Ciuriak

Ciuriak Consulting Inc. ( email )

83 Stewart St.
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6H9
Canada

Dan Ciuriak (Contact Author)

Ciuriak Consulting Inc. ( email )

83 Stewart St.
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6H9
Canada

Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) ( email )

57 Erb Street West
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6C2
Canada

C.D. Howe Institute ( email )

67 Yonge St., Suite 300
Toronto, Ontario M5E 1J8
Canada

Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada ( email )

Canada

HOME PAGE: http://ciuriakconsulting.com/

BKP Development Research & Consulting GmbH ( email )

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München, 80639
Germany

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