¿Hacia una Política Comercial Multipropósito?

The author argues that a paradigm shift is occurring in international trade, moving away from the 'establishment' view of globalization as a tool for economic efficiency toward a 'multi-purpose trade policy.' This new approach integrates objectives like sustainability, resilience, and security directly into trade goals. However, this shift creates significant national challenges—including the difficulty of balancing incommensurable goals and overcoming institutional silos—and international tensions, as states increasingly prioritize unilateral action over World Trade Organization (WTO) norms. While developed nations like the US and EU lead this trend, developing nations remain skeptical of certain goals, such as labor standards, while viewing others, like food security, as long-standing priorities.

• Trade policy is shifting from a primary focus on the efficient international division of labor and liberalization toward a 'multi-purpose' approach. In this new paradigm, objectives such as labor rights, inequality, supply chain resilience, national security, and the climate crisis are no longer treated as externalities or safeguards, but as immediate goals that may compete with or replace liberalization.
• The shift toward multi-purpose trade policy is driven by narratives challenging the traditional view of globalization. These include concerns over job losses for specific worker groups, increased inequality caused by intellectual property and investment protections, security risks stemming from economic interdependence (exemplified by Russia's invasion of Ukraine), supply chain fragility exposed by COVID-19, and the global climate collapse driven by Western production and consumption patterns.
• Major developed economies are actively implementing this approach. The US Trade Representative has advocated for 'Globalization 2.0' to prioritize sustainability over efficiency, and the US Indo-Pacific Economic Framework emphasizes 'resilience,' 'inclusion,' and 'sustainability.' Similarly, the European Union views trade as a tool to combat climate change and promote labor rights, including the implementation of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
• Implementing multi-purpose trade policy at the national level presents four main challenges: the difficulty of balancing 'incommensurable' goals (e.g., economic efficiency vs. climate goals) that cannot be reduced to a single economic metric; the existence of 'isolated knowledge' across government departments; the uncertainty of whether trade instruments (like import bans) are the most effective tools for non-trade goals; and conflicts over which government authority should lead decision-making.
• Internationally, the shift is leading to a decline in the influence of multilateral trade law. States are increasingly adopting unilateral or 'minilateral' approaches and a 'do whatever is necessary' attitude, often ignoring WTO norms to pursue climate or industrial policies. This is evident in the use of national content requirements for subsidies and the US shift toward national-level policy-making.
• There is a divide between developed and developing nations regarding multi-purpose trade policy. Developing countries are skeptical of labor standards and fear that new objectives are pretexts for protectionism (e.g., US steel and aluminum tariffs). Conversely, they argue that goals like food security and development have always been their priority, and that developed nations are only now converting to this perspective.
• The role of the WTO is becoming fragmented and varies by topic. It has the most potential for creating formal laws regarding sustainability (e.g., the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies) and acting as a policy coordination forum for pandemic response, but it is likely to play a minimal role in labor rights and a limited 'monitoring' role in security measures.

APA

Lamp, N. (n.d.). ¿Hacia una Política Comercial Multipropósito? International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/es/node/17102

Chicago

Lamp, Nicolas. ¿Hacia una Política Comercial Multipropósito? International Institute for Sustainable Development, n.d. https://www.iisd.org/es/node/17102.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lamp |first1=Nicolas |title=¿Hacia una Política Comercial Multipropósito? |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |url=https://www.iisd.org/es/node/17102 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lampndhacia, author = {Lamp, Nicolas}, title = {{¿Hacia una Política Comercial Multipropósito?}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/es/node/17102}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }