A/HRC/30/44 human rights recommendations contained herein, which correspond to the Human Rights Council’s resolutions pertaining to the mandate. An international order of sovereign and equal States under the Charter of the United Nations, committed to the rule of law, transparency and accountability must not be undermined by private attempts to replace it with an international order ruled by transnational enterprises lacking democratic legitimacy. 4. This preliminary report on a complex and multifaceted subject does not question the axiom that, in principle, free trade is a good thing that has promoted development for centuries. A breakdown in trade can even usher economic contraction, as happened with the decline of the Roman Empire into the “dark ages”. Although bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements may foster international exchanges, one should not be so optimistic as to equate trade with welfare or to pretend that “[o]ne could almost say that trade is human rights in practice”.8 Given that tariffs are already low, do they need to be reduced further at the expense of domestic regulation of social policy? The focus has shifted to non-trade barriers, which many countries — both developed and developing — maintain to protect their domestic markets. Some observers contend that bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements are geopolitical constructs having little to do with trade liberalization, while others like Professor Yash Tandon point to the history of trade as a form of imposing economic dominance.9 In any case, a sensible compromise that allows foreign direct investment while ensuring the protection of human rights 10 is possible, as recognized by the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Such obligations are derived from customary law and treaty law, notably the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. By definition, every State’s legitimacy depends on its ability to advance the welfare of the population under its jurisdiction. Every State under the rule of law must fulfil this responsibility and cannot divest itself of human rights obligations by outsourcing or privatizing activities that are fundamentally State functions. Before and after entering into international investment agreements, States should conduct human rights, health and environmental impact assessments.11 5. Many observers have expressed concern about certain investor–State dispute settlement arbitrations that have effectively overridden the State’s fulfilment of its function to regulate domestic labour, health and environmental policies, and have had adverse 8 9 10 11 Pascal Lamy (former Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO)), “Towards shared responsibility and greater coherence: human rights, trade and macroeconomic policy”, speech at the Colloquium on Human Rights in the Global Economy, Geneva, 13 January 2010. Available from www.wto.org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl146_e.htm. Yash Tandon, Trade is War: the West’s War against the World (OR Books, 2015). See also the history of the Opium Wars to force the opening of China to European trade in Jack Beeching, The Chinese Opium Wars (Orlando, Florida, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975); and Susanna Hoe and Derek Roebuck, The Taking of Hong Kong: Charles and Clara Elliot in China Waters (Richmond, Surrey, Curzon Press, 1999). See Stephan W. Schill (ed.), International Investment Law and Comparative Public Law (Oxford University Press, 2010); Joseph François et al., “Reducing transatlantic barriers to trade and investment: an economic assessment”, IIDE Discussion Paper No. 20130401(Institute for International and Development Economics, 2013); V. S. Seshadri, “Trans-Atlantic trade and investment partnership”, RIS Discussion Paper No. 185 (New Delhi, Research and Information Systems for Developing Countries, 2013); Jeffrey J. Schott and Cathleen Cimino, “Crafting a transatlantic trade and investment partnership: what can be done”, Policy Brief No. PB13-8 (Washington, D.C., Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2013); and U.S. Business Coalition for TPP, “VOICES: Asia-Pacific Policy Experts Support TPP”, 28 April 2015, available from tppcoalition.org/voices-asia-pacific-policy-experts-support-tpp-and-tpa. See A/HRC/19/59/Add.5; www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/food/docs/report_hria-seminar_2010.pdf and www.humanrights.dk/business/impact-assessment. 5