Can trade policy promote environmental health?

The WTO ministerial meetings have been postponed. Work towards multilateral trade agreements continues, however, especially on agreements intended to promote environmental health. Dozens of WTO Members are working to address plastics pollution and encourage sustainable plastics trade. The European Union is considering a law to ban agriculture imports from regions vulnerable to deforestation, Mehreen Khan explained in the Financial Times (FT). In Foreign Affairs, Jessica F. Green argued that the WTO, IMF, and other multilateral fora are better placed than the UN to negotiate the global climate agenda.

Meanwhile, the contest to control cobalt reserves vital for clean energy technologies, in particular between the US and China, is detailed in the New York Times.