Trade in health products has increased substantially over the past 2decades, and tariffs on health products have been lowered, making, for example, medicines more affordable for many.Indeed, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 calls upon countries to ensure healthy lives and to promote well-being for all ages. Yet in several developing countries, substantial tariffs still persist, inflating the prices of health products. The most direct and immediate contribution of the trade community toward achieving SDG 3 couldbe to open up trade unilaterally or to negotiate a plurilateral trade agreement, which would guarantee free market access for health products, like much-needed medicines.

Employment was an afterthought in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It was not part of the original goals but was added in 2008, halfway through the implementation period. It is, however, a key element of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Goal 8 encourages countries to “promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.” There are eight employment-related targets and ten specific indicators (United Nations 2015).

What fish trade policy options and recommendations can be put in place to help achieve the relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations? We need to understand the (i) relationship between fish trade and sustainable fisheries; (ii) potential promise of and the perils in the fish trade; and (iii) main trade-related concerns in the sustainability of fisheries. Sumaila (2017) addresses these issues in detail.

In 2002, “trade for development” was a core topic of the Millennium Development Goals. Fifteen years later, trade is at the periphery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Three main reasons explain this rapid decline. First, trade negotiators did their best to obscure the Doha Round and bilateral trade negotiations in byzantine and sterile debates. Second, business stopped to pay attention to trade policy because firms turned to a form of liberalization tailor-made for their own global value chains: they traded tariff cuts of interest to them in exchange of investments in the opening countries.

Since trade started being emphasized as a locomotive of growth, export promotion trade policies have become a popular option for countries in search of higher economic growth rates. East Asian countries in particular have witnessed a distinct success in terms of rapid economic growth after the adoption of outward-looking trade policies.

A U.S. decision to block the reappointment of Seung Wha Chang, a South Korean member of the appellate body of the World Trade Organization, has put at risk the independence and credibility of the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism -- the crown jewels of the multilateral trading system. After the de facto collapse of the Doha round of talks on further trade liberalization the U.S. move is a serious blow for the WTO.