Trade and Sustainable Development: Options for follow-up and review of the trade-related elements of the Post-2015 Agenda and Financing for Development

The document identifies six clusters of trade-related commitments in the post-2015 agenda, ranging from subsidy reform to the strengthening of the multilateral trading system. It argues that because trade's contribution to sustainable development is diffuse, a coordinated review process is necessary to ensure policy coherence. The authors propose a three-tier review architecture consisting of national self-assessments, regional peer reviews, and global thematic assessments. A central role is assigned to the World Trade Organization's Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) and the High-level Political Forum (HLPF). To manage the complexity of data and reporting, the paper recommends the creation of an inter-agency task force to synthesize trade-related reports and provide analytical oversight of trade-offs between goals.

• Trade-related elements in the post-2015 Agenda are diffuse, meaning that follow-up and review will be challenging and requires a coherent policy framework to ensure that trade and other policies do not work at cross-purposes.
• The authors identify six clusters of trade-related elements in the draft SDGs and FfD: 1) subsidies and commodities trade, 2) access to water, energy, and medicines, 3) economic diversification, global value chains, and trade facilitation, 4) illegal extraction and trade in natural resources and hazardous waste, 5) the multilateral trading system and regional agreements, and 6) policy coherence for sustainable development.
• A proposed three-level review architecture consists of national reviews (self-assessments every four years), regional reviews (peer review among countries in similar circumstances), and global assessments (thematic and national tracks under the High-level Political Forum).
• The WTO's Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) is identified as the most comprehensive body for trade-related peer review, with the potential to align its periodic reports with the four-year SDG national review cycle.
• To avoid an excessive reporting burden on states and to provide an analytical synthesis of the interrelated effects and trade-offs between goals, the paper suggests establishing an inter-agency task force on trade, potentially coordinated by the WTO.
• The document notes a gap in the post-2015 agenda regarding the explicit targeting of trade cost reduction, which is argued to be the most important goal for developing countries.
• Review mechanisms for illegal trade in natural resources often reside outside the traditional trade system, relying on bodies like the Basel Convention for hazardous waste and CITES for wildlife trafficking.

APA

Tipping, A., & Wolfe, R. (2015). Trade and Sustainable Development: Options for follow-up and review of the trade-related elements of the Post-2015 Agenda and Financing for Development. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/trade-sustainable-development-options-post-2015-agenda.pdf

Chicago

Tipping, Alice, and Robert Wolfe. Trade and Sustainable Development: Options for follow-up and review of the trade-related elements of the Post-2015 Agenda and Financing for Development. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2015. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/trade-sustainable-development-options-post-2015-agenda.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Tipping |first1=Alice |last2=Wolfe |first2=Robert |title=Trade and Sustainable Development: Options for follow-up and review of the trade-related elements of the Post-2015 Agenda and Financing for Development |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=June 2015 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/trade-sustainable-development-options-post-2015-agenda.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{tipping2015trade, author = {Tipping, Alice and Wolfe, Robert}, title = {{Trade and Sustainable Development: Options for follow-up and review of the trade-related elements of the Post-2015 Agenda and Financing for Development}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2015}, month = jun, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/trade-sustainable-development-options-post-2015-agenda.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }