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Trade

Trade

Both cross-border trade in goods and services and foreign investment are important parts of the global economy. States have undertaken to follow certain rules by signing international trade and investment agreements. From a sustainability perspective, trade and investment are ambiguous: for example, the international transport of goods causes emissions, but can also contribute to the global diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

Ecologic Institute examines the tension between trade and the environment, especially from a legal and economic perspective, and makes proposals on how to make trade and investment agreements as environmentally friendly as possible. Reviewing evolving policies and regulatory proposals for their compatibility with international agreements is an important part of the Institute's work. In addition, Ecologic Institute develops recommendations on how to make international trade in resources along supply chains more environmentally friendly and how to prevent the illegal trade in natural resources.

Contact

Resource Conservation + Circular Economy

Trade

Evaluation

Economics

Finance

Indicators

Digitalization

Aaron Best
Coordinator Data Analysis
Senior Fellow

Energy

Trade

Climate

Evaluation

Finance

Education

Benjamin Görlach
Head, Economics and Policy Assessment
Senior Fellow

Digitalization

Education

Indicators

Plastics

Resource Conservation + Circular Economy

Trade

Dr. Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers
Coordinator Resource Efficiency & Circular Economy
Senior Fellow

Governance

Environmental Law – Ecologic Legal

Trade

Climate

Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf
Head, International and European Governance
Senior Fellow
Selected Projects for Trade
| Fotolia © EcoView
The EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking adopted by the European Commission on 26 February 2016 is the most recent EU initiative to tackle wildlife crime. On 8 September 2016, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety of the European Parliam... Read more

EU Action Plan Against Wildlife Trafficking

Duration
Jul - Sep 2016
Funding
As renewable energy sources are more widely used and corresponding support systems expanded, the economic significance of the sector is also growing. This, in turn, also leads to a growing potential for trade disputes involving renewable energy production. In this proje... Read more
| Fotolia © danimages
Global demand for minerals is growing rapidly, driven by rapid population growth, urbanisation and an increasingly diverse range of technical applications. Global material supply chains linking the extraction, transport and processing stages of raw materials have become... Read more

Global Material Flows and Demand-supply Forecasting for Mineral Strategies (MinFuture)

Duration
Dec 2016 - Nov 2018
Funding
| Fotolia © Andreas F
Resource extraction has often significant impacts on the environment. Ecologic Institute analyses for the German Federal Environment Agency governance instruments which can foster, establish and enforce global standards for environmentally sound raw material extraction.... Read more
All projects on Trade
Selected Publications for Trade
The dispute settlement mechanism of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is one of the most active international courts. How the WTO's adjudicators decide cases is the topic of a book chapter authored by Christiane Gerstetter, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute. The ... Read more

Gerstetter, Christiane: Substance and Style - How the WTO Adjudicators Legitimize their Decisions, in: Andreas Follesdal and Geir Ulfstein: The Judicialization of International Law, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2018

This study conducted by Ecologic Institute with support from the Heinrich Boell Foundation aims at providing factual background to the debate on regulatory cooperation within the TTIP. The study looks at whether fears are justified that regulatory cooperation could lead... Read more
Gerstetter, Christiane; Lena Donat; Katharina Klaas and Katherine Weingartner 2014: Regulatory Cooperation under TTIP – a Risk for Democracy and National Regulation?, Berlin.
In this study for the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Christiane Gerstetter and Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf of Ecologic Institute look at the "I" in TTIP, investment rules in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership under negotiation between the US and the EU. They assess ... Read more
Gerstetter, Christiane und Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf 2013: Investor-state Dispute Settlement under TTIP - a Risk for Environmental Regulation?, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung: Berlin.
Cross-border trade and the rules governing it impact consumers. Trade has benefits for consumers, such as access to goods not available domestically. Yet it also has certain risks, such as exposure to traded goods that may be dangerous. Against this background, consumer... Read more

Christiane Gerstetter and Lena Donat 2017: The Enforcement of Consumer Rights in Trade Agreements. Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband: Berlin.

All publications on Trade
Selected Presentations for Trade
| © SRU
The German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) presented on 25 February 2016 a statement entitled "Environment and Free Trade: Environmentally sound design of TTIP". Following the presentation of the statement by Prof. Dr. Christian Callies, a member of ... Read more

Panel discussion:Statement of the German Advisory Council on the Environment on TTIP

Date
25 February 2016
Organiser
All presentations on Trade