Making Trade Rules Work for Development: Overview
New trade and investment opportunities are growing, and innovative legal and institutional programming is needed to stimulate sustainable economic development. Over 350 bi-lateral and regional economic treaties and 2700 relatively new Bi-lateral Investment Treaties (BITs) make important economic commitments that can either foster or frustrate sustainable development. Markets are growing exponentially for fair trade goods and socially responsible investments. Developing countries are also refining their financial systems to track and reduce capital flight, regulate taxation and banking in more sustainable ways, and secure economic justice through legal empowerment of the poor. International treaties on sustainable development are increasingly using trade, investment and financial mechanisms to achieve their aims. IDLO leads cutting-edge new legal programming on sustainable development in world trade law. Technical assistance can be provided for legal and regulatory reforms to secure new opportunities by facilitating compliance with treaty obligations for sustainable economic development.
In order to foster development through technology, it is necessary to put into place an efficient and flexible intellectual property (IP) rights system and to promote local innovation. IDLO’s programming aims to protect and enforce IP to address emerging issues such as technology transfer. In addition, IT developments may require enhanced legal frameworks to secure privacy, security and access to knowledge.

Trade, IT and IP Laws for Sustainable Development: IDLO’s Approach
IDLO’s Trade, IT and IP Law programming systematically identifies legal and governance barriers to implementation of sustainable economic development treaties; provides legal and regulatory training and technical assistance for implementation; and implements consensus-based solutions tailored uniquely for each recipient country.

Securing Fair Trade & Sustainable Investment: IDLO’s Strategic Focus
International Trade Law for Sustainable Economic Development: Strengthening national legislative frameworks for negotiation and compliance with development aspects of international treaties such as the WTO Agreements, Economic Partnership Agreements, Free Trade Agreements and regional economic unions, and to facilitate access to fast-growing ‘Fair Trade’ markets.