TED Analysis Cases

MULTILATERAL AGREEMENTS

RESEARCH PAPER NUMBER: 2

RESEARCH PAPER MNEMONIC: XMULTI

RESEARCH PAPER NAME: Multilateral TED Cases in Shared Sovereignty

DRAFT AUTHOR: Rebecca Saxe

Abstract
Issue Background
Relevant TED Cases
Policy Implications
Further Information

I. Abstract

Multilateral agreements are on the rise in the international arena. However, there are several issues that combine to make these types of negotiations difficult, including perceived threats to national sovereignty, North/South debates, and possibilities of cheating. In the arena of trade and the environment, these agreements take on a very important role. Environmental problems and trade disputes now have snowballing affects on the rest of the world.

II. Issue Background

Multilateralism is a slow growing trend in the international arena and the declining size of the world is increasing the number of issues that are global in scope. Problems such as pollution, species and habitat loss, climate control, hazardous wastes, deforestation, and other environmental problems no longer just affect one or a few countries. These issues are beginning to affect the entire world. Multilateralism is defined as negotiations between more than two states and have existed throughout history. One of the most famous instances of multilateral diplomacy was the Congress of Vienna in 1815. (1) Today, these types of negotiations have been institutionalized in international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, etc.

States see multilateral negotiations as a threat to their national sovereignty. Countries claim that they should be immune from "lawsuits" for their official acts in foreign courts. Some argue that this should be suspended when countries act like individuals when trading. Immunity in trade would lead to an unfair advantage. The liberal theory of international relations argues that all states should trade without restrictions, but all nations have some sort of trade law governing the products sold in their country and the products they sell to others. If the countries were immune from actions in foreign courts, they could have free reign on any type of trade practices they like would like to implement, including protectionism. (2)

Multilateralism is hoped to increase interdependence and cooperation between nations. The liberal theories on this subject claim that when countries are in situations where they must interact with each other often, they are more likely to cooperate. If they pursue policies that have negative effects on their neighbors, those countries may retaliate. To avoid this, nations will try not to follow controversial policies with their trading partners and neighbors. (3) In the realist perspective, Multilateralism, is dangerous. It conditions states to rely too much on others. The ideal would be for a state to be self-sufficient in all ways. However, in today's interdependent and rapidly changing world, this is unrealistic. For globalists, Multilateralism has a negative connotation. The dependency theorists in particular view the agreements between industrialized nations and developing nations as relationships that prevent developing countries from developing. This happens because the developing countries can only produce a few products, such as commodities. The developed nations can produce those products as well, so when trading begins, the Third World nations are in no position to demand better terms of trade and are unable to progress farther up the development latter. However, this theory does not hold true for all developing countries. Countries such as South Korea have managed to overcome the barrier and are on their way towards joining the industrialized nations. (4)

One of the conflictual issues in multilateral negotiations regarding the environment and trade are between the "North" and the "South." The North is defined as the industrialized countries of North America, Europe and also includes Japan. The South includes much of the rest of the world, even though there are large differences in GDP and other economic indicators. There are many issue areas where the conflict between the North and South is evident. Many developing countries complained that they are left out of the important negotiations. The General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and many other multilateral institutions are alleged to be forums for the developed nations to air their grievances and make their deals. The developing countries have no ultimate say in what goes on. One of the most important points of contention is market access. The developing countries claim that for all the talk about trade liberalism, they are still limited in their access to the markets in industrialized countries. (5)

Some economic forecasters claim that the Uruguay round negotiations will increase the world economy by approximately $213 billion. It is also predicted that the world merchandise trade will increase by approximately $745 billion. Who will partake in these gains? The industrialized countries for the most part. It is estimated that 71% or, $165 billion, will go to North America and Europe. Although the percentage of total world trade (except fuels) for developing countries have increased from 16-20%, this has been limited to a few countries. These include China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Chile, Mexico, Argentina and Egypt. This stresses the fact that the South is not a unitary area. There are large discrepancies between the newly industrialized countries and those at the bottom of the scale, such as Africa. (6)

GDP has been declining for most African nations in the last decade and their share of world trade has been dropping. In 1970, Africa's share of world trade was approximately 3%. Today, it is just over 1%. Between 1986 and 1990, declining commodity prices cost Africa $50 billion and its debt burden rose to $183 billion in 1992. (7)These countries expressed apprehension that environmental standards in industrialized countries represent "trade protectionism, decreased market access and competitiveness of developing country exporters and raise regulatory compliance costs beyond national priorities." They argue that developing countries need more access to "technical, legal and legislative, and other information, to help exporters in Africa anticipate and respond to environmental policies. (8)

Much of the environmental protection has been a move towards selective protectionist policies. It is interesting to note how environmental laws seem to also benefit the economy of the nation pushing for these reforms. In the Dolphin Tuna Case, the United States fishermen benefitted from a lack of competition because the Mexican fishermen could not afford the new nets to meet the standards that the US required. (9) An example of an environmental policy that the African countries objected to the ban on all African ivory It is objected to because now that the herds are not being reduced by hunters of ivory, the herds are beginning to "put pressure on land management" because of overpopulation. (10)

Problems with multilateral agreements are that they take a long time, there can be cheating. This cheating is present in every aspect of international relations, but with trade and the environment, cheating could have a severe effect on the health of the entire world. If countries cheat and continue to produce or trade CFCs illegally, the earth's atmosphere could disappear, and life as we know it will cease to exist. There is no entity to enforce in the international arena that can enforce international law.

The North/South issues are strikingly evident in the cases described below. In the Biodiversity case, nations of the South argued for assistance from the North to enable them to afford the environmental programs. In the Second case, which discusses the Montreal Protocol, Southern nations argue that they should still be able to produce products that make their living conditions more comfortable, even if it does harm the ozone. The Rio Trade case is a subsidiary of the Biodiversity case and many of the same issues are discussed, including the opening of industrial nation markets to more Southern goods. With weather information, there is the problem of the North having access to information that will put them even farther ahead economically than the South and then also charging the South for some of that information. The China Coal case deals more with issues of a regional power forcing its policies and their consequences on surrounding countries than with issues of the North/South debate. With Antarctica, countries were more concerned with possibilities of cheating than the problems of market access or financial compensation.

III. Relevant TED Cases

A. Case Listings and Brief Descriptions

Biodiversity and Trade Case (BIODIV)
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) is actually two agreements. The one case is the Convention on Biological Diversity. Biodiversity is defined as land, sea and other ecosystems; this includes diversity within species and between species and of ecosystems. The Convention attempts to preserve and implement the "sustainable" use the biological diversity. It also calls for the "fair and equitable" sharing of the utilization of genetic resources, including transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding." There was a large focus on assistance to developing countries through training, technology access and transfer, and international funding.
Montreal Protocol on CFCs and Trade (MONTREAL)
This case discusses the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. It was one of the first international environmental agreements with trade sanctions and this has lead to a reduction of CFCs in some of the industrial countries and to an awareness, in the general public about how serious this issue is. There was considerable concern with the fact that non-signatory countries still produce CFCs. Developing countries felt that they should be able to enjoy the privileges of the developed countries and should not be penalized for producing CFCs. This argument led to a 10 year delay in implementation.
Rio Conference Agreements and Trade (RIOTRADE)
The Rio Conference Agreements and Trade case focuses on Agenda 21 of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. This covers issues such as climate change, Biodiversity, fish stock, desertification, forests, and hazardous wastes. It also discusses the follow-up of the UNCED in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Developing nations argued that trade barriers should be removed from developed country markets to compensate for the loss of trade. They also argued that the North should provide financial resources such as debt reduction schemes.
China Coal and Pollution (CHINCOAL)
The excavation and use of coal in China has important implications for the environment. The burning of the coal is polluting the air in China and the surrounding countries including Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines. Also, the resources are being depleted at a rapid rate, and sustainable development programs are not going to be seen in the near future. With China's vast resources of coal, it will be difficult for anyone to convince them to consider alternative sources of energy.
Antarctica Tourism (ANTARCT)
With the rise of tourism to the antarctic, there is a real fear that there will be a negative effect on the delicate ecosystem and the scientific experiments that are being conducted there. Many countries have laid claim to this continent and have attempted to discover a legitimate system to facilitate the tourism needs and to protect the environment. The Antarctica Treaty was signed in 1961 and maintains that Antarctica should be used for peaceful endeavors only, prohibiting all military activities, weapons testing, nuclear explosions and disposal of radioactive waste. The treaty also seeks to promote scientific investigations.
Weather Information Commodification (WEATHER)
Throughout history, weather information has been one area where all countries freely shared information. Now, certain types of weather information will have a price tag. Information, such as local forecasts, will be charged for, although severe storm and global warming data will continue to be accessible to all. This has important implications for the North/South debate. Nations who do not have the money or resources to obtain this information themselves will fall farther behind developmentally.

B. Comparison and Contrast

Case Comparisons
CATEGORY	CHINCOAL	ANTARCT	RIOTRADE	BIODIV	MONTREAL	WEATHER
Discourse and Status	dis & allege	dis & inprog	agr & com	agr & com	agr & com	agr & com
Forum and Scope	China & Uni	Treaty & Multi	UN & Multi	UN & Multi	UN & Multi	UN & Multi
Legal Standing	Treaty	Treaty	Treaty	Treaty	Treaty	Treaty
Geo Domain	Asia	Antarctica	Global	Global	Global	Global
Habitat	Temperate	Polar	Global	Global	Global	Global
Product	Coal Raw	Tourism	Many	Many	CFCs	Information

About Ted Categories and Clusters

Discourse and Status

These cases seem to indicate that a more global issue is more likely to be resolved than a regional issue. However, this may be misleading. The four cases with a global scope had their treaties negotiated within the United Nations. The UN gave them a forum in which they could disseminate information, negotiate with a set of fixed rules, and gave the cases legitimacy in the eyes of the countries involved. Although the other two cases were multilateral in scope, they were not negotiated within an established institution with understood ways of conducting negotiations and without the history of legitimacy that the UN has. This may why they are still in the disagreement stage.

Another reason that the global issues may seem to be solved more effortlessly is that the issues are the concern of the industrial powers. If these countries were not willing to go along with the agreements, they would not be efficient or even exist. An example of this was the inefficiency of the League of Nations without the United States.

Forum and Scope

Four of the cases were resolved within the United Nations and the resolutions were signed and adopted by its members. In the China Coal case, China will have to conduct negotiations with the countries in Asia that the pollution is affecting. With Antarctica, the treaty is helping to decrease tensions between nations claiming overlapping areas.

Legal Standing

All of the cases are treaties.

Geo Domain and Habitat

There are four global and two regional cases. There is a negative impact on all species and habitats on the planet for the global cases and all the species and habitats within the specified regions of the other two cases.

Product

Because the cases are global or regional in scope, the number and type of products that these agreements affect is quite amazing. The must be a movement to find alternative products in these cases. For coal, there are many alternative sources of energy, but none quite as cheap. CFCs have the same problem. They are being replaced by HCFCs and other chemicals, but even they are still harmful to the ozone. In the Rio and Biodiversity cases, synthetics and biodegradable materials would help conserve species and habitats. With weather information, there may be other types of information that can be gathered, or several developing countries could combine resources and launch a satellite of their own. In the Antarctica case, there is no substitute for tourism, but conservation measures could be strengthened and enforced more stringently.