Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Around 80 postgraduate students from various universities across China attended a summer school organized by the School of WTO Research and Education of the Shanghai University of International Business and Economics that focused specifically on the trade and environment nexus.
This Summer School is organized by the School of WTO Research and Education (SWTORE) of the Shanghai University of International Business and Economics (SUIBE), under the auspices of the WTO Chairs Programme. Around 80 postgraduate students from various universities across China and with different backgrounds (mostly, law and economics) attended this 7th (2014) edition. 
It focused specifically on the Trade and Environment nexus. Prof. Lei ZHANG, the WTO Chair-holder at SUIBE, requested the WTO Secretariat to deliver the programme of the first week. The two WTO staff members who went to Shanghai concentrated their interventions on relevant environment-related activities of the WTO, including the definition of environmental goods, the relationship between WTO rules and Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), and the impact of environmental requirements on market access.
In addition, specific sessions were dedicated to the empirical linkages between trade and environment, the debate on trade and climate change, and the negotiations on fisheries subsidies. The second and last week of the Summer School focused mostly on selected WTO dispute settlement cases and was delivered by Chinese experts from Academia and Government.