ABSTRACT
Trade Sustainability Impact Assessments (SIAs) originated in the particular context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations on trade liberalization, a few months before the WTO Ministerial Conference was convened in Seattle in November 1999. Rising concerns over the social and environmental impacts of the previous liberalization cycle (the Uruguay Round, 1986–1994), sharp criticism of the opacity of final decision making in the WTO, from which developing countries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were excluded, plus the protracted and worrying difficulty for the European Union (EU) in defending its own preferences on particular issues such as agriculture, cultural goods and environmental standards, were all warning signals – much clearer now than they were at the time – that WTO trade negotiations were very likely to be disrupted and that the EU would be found guilty for such a disruption, along with a few other OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. All these three signals turned to red a few weeks before Seattle, resulting in the Ministerial Conference's ultimate collapse.
