Title: The WTO’s Response to International Trade and Environment
Abstract: The conflicts between environmentalists and free trade proponents involve a wider array of interests and interest groups. Such conflicts need to be reconciled to a certain extent in order to achieve the goal of sustainable development. This paper examines the sometimes conflicting interests of the WTO and environmentalist, specifically focusing on the possibility of the structure and policies of the present WTO to solve trade‐related environment concerns.
From the pursuit of trade liberalization hyphen beginning to pay attention to environmental protection, health and safety issues, and then to putting the goal of the sustainable development and trade liberalization on the same important position, the WTO is well on its way to adjusting its jurisprudence to effectively reconcile the tension between international trade and the environmental protection. Moreover, the interpretation of Article XX has evolved from a narrow analysis into a more realistic and balancing approach. The WTO adjudicating bodies have faced difficult task of achieving the goals of the multilateral trading system and avoiding diluting legitimate efforts of sovereign states to implement their environmental agenda simultaneously.
Other important tasks facing the WTO are the careful monitoring of the impact of new environmental initiatives and ensuring that processes and production methods (hereinafter “PPMs”) as well as eco‐hyphen labeling does not become a disguised protectionist to trade. Finally, it is better for the WTO to adopt thoroughgoing procedural reforms to improve the transparency of its decision‐making processes to both the public and nongovernmental organizations. Environmental interests, on the other hand, should learn to work within the context of the legal framework for international trade to achieve their goals. Actually, the goal of sustainable development can be furthered by free international trade.
Maybe the WTO is not “the only game in town”, but it should be beyond doubt a major player on the world scene. Thus, the WTO can be a starting point for reconciling the tension–real or imagined–between international trade and global environmental concerns.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
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