ABSTRACT
The volume, range, variety, and sophistication of international trade in commodities, intermediaries, and finished goods has accelerated exponentially and geographically since Adam Smith noted the human propensity to ‘truck, barter and trade.’ On the one hand, the proliferation of global markets linked to multiple trade routes using land, sea, and air has facilitated choice, specialisation, and low prices, but, on the other hand, the production, distribution, and consumption of international trade has made a less beneficial contribution to the environment. Waste, resource scarcity, exploitation, and uneven compensation are notable in a linear economic model. Acknowledging the negative manifestations of global trade in the Global North and Global South, countries, communities, and companies are recognising, albeit unevenly, that the short- and long-term ‘costs’ of not transitioning from a linear-based model to a circular economy are unsustainable. Whilst trade exchange and international trade agreements linked directly to the circular economy are emerging, substantive adaption continues to be limited. Importantly, the social, political, cultural, and historic patterns of trade need to be considered in making explicit the possibilities and obstacles in shifting to a model of trade that embeds circularity globally. Inequality, unevenness, and the ability to engage in sustainable trade reforms on an equal basis should not be ignored in seeking to understand the transition to a circular economy in an uneven world economy.
