Voluntary Sustainability Standards in International Trade

Global trade offers huge potential to contribute to sustainable development, but it must be governed in a way that mitigates some of its negative impacts on sustainability. Accordingly, many initiatives have been developed that seek to govern global trade in a way that would make it more sustainable. One important initiative is the development and implementation of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) relating to products and production processes. The United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards defines VSS as "Standards specifying requirements that producers, traders, manufacturers, retailers or service providers may be asked to meet, relating to a wide range of sustainability metrics, including respect for basic human rights, worker health and safety, the environmental impacts of production, community relations, land use planning and others." This report provides an introduction to VSS as instruments for making international trade more sustainable.