The WTO has evolved into a World Trade and Sustainable Development Organization and many issues now on its agenda are far from traditional trade policy matters.
Pascal Lamy, WTO Director-General, writes in the foreword of this book:
"The WTO simply cannot ignore the need to promote and preserve the environment. The priority must be to re-balance the international trade system in favour of developing countries. [This book] is a crucial first step in identifying and exploring the issues that fall under the umbrellas of sustainable development and the expanded agenda of trade policy. A crucial question is whether a clearer mission for the WTO in support of sustainable development implies major institutional reforms. I do not think so. To surmount the difficulties confronting the WTO, it must adapt. But the fundamental objective of the WTO has to remain the construction of fair trade rules to guarantee better, more long-lasting, more predictable and more transparent trade opening."