The Role of Trade and Trade Policy in Advancing the 2030 Development Agenda
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals, recently adopted by the UN Assembly as part of the new 2030 Development Agenda, establish a set of highly ambitious goals and targets touching upon a broad range of issues from poverty alleviation and food security to natural resources and clean energy. Taken together, these universal and multilaterally endorsed goals provide a critical framework for policy orientation for the next 15 years. In the absence of new international financial commitments, trade—and, more broadly, policies that affect trade flows—will have a significant role to play in the implementation process. Based on a review of recent evolutions in the global trade policy landscape, this article explores possible avenues for harnessing the potential of trade policies to achieve these goals and targets. In doing so, it focuses on three areas where trade’s contribution will be particularly critical—namely, food security, sustainable energy, and oceans. In those areas, it highlights existing shortcomings in international trade governance frameworks and assesses possible avenues for addressing them through multilateral negotiations and plurilateral or regional agreements.