Norms, Institutions and Social Learning: An Explanation for Weak Policy Integration in the WTO's Committee on Trade and Environment

Melissa Gabler
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Melissa Gabler: Melissa Gabler is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Her research focuses on trade and environmental policy integration in the EU and WTO. She is interested in the normative and institutional conditions facilitating and obstructing social learning and policy integration. She has also performed collaborative research on food safety and agricultural and food biotechnology policies. Publications include a peer-reviewed article in International Studies Quarterly (co-authored with William D. Coleman, 2002).

Global Environmental Politics, 2010, vol. 10, issue 2, 80-117

Abstract: The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) recognized that sustainable development can only be actualized if environmental norms are integrated into other areas of policy across levels of governance. This article examines the Committee on Trade and Environment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to answer the question of why actors' efforts to enhance the mutual supportiveness of trade and environmental norms have resulted in minimalist policy outcomes. I first introduce a framework for analyzing norms and their levels of compatibility and a social learning explanation for policy integration emphasizing the importance of normative and institutional conditions. Second, I show that low levels of both norm compatibility between UNCED and WTO and institutional capacity in the WTO for learning have contributed to weak integration. The approach contributes to constructivist theory development and the findings provide insights to policy-makers grappling with how to support the integration of norms and institutions in global governance. (c) 2010 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Date: 2010
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