The Role of the WTO in Environmental Protection

            The correct role of trade-based solutions in global environmental politics is surrounded by much controversy. The World Trade Organization (WTO) whose mission is to "open international trade for the benefit of all" is one of the largest and most effective organizations in regulating and governing international trade. Many environmentalists feel that a body whose main purpose is to promote free trade should not have the power to make decisions and legislation regarding the environment. However, there is a strong and inherent connection between trade and the environment. The WTO has a rightful role in environmental protection and exercises its regulatory powers justly and without prioritizing trade over the environment.

            Environmental interest groups that feel that the goals of the WTO are against those of their own organizations bring up some valid points about trade in general. There are implications of increased trade including increased transportation, depletion of natural resources, and pollution from factories. However, trade is both necessary and beneficial for development and prosperity in states. Additionally, comparative advantage can balance out the initial costs of production. It allows for states to produce only the goods they are most efficient at producing and trade with other countries for goods that they produce less efficiently, causing minimal environmental harm. The interdependence of the economies of states is the precise reason that the world's most effective international trade regulation body should be involved in environmental protection policy.

            The WTO has a number of measures in place to ensure that the environment is taken into consideration when decisions are being made. Sustainable development is claimed as an objective in the preamble of the WTO. There is also a Committee on Trade and Environment that is held regularly by all members to discuss the relationship between the environment and trade (Green Planet Blues 170-171). The WTO's Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM) has proven extremely effective and makes the organization qualified to make important decisions regarding environmental protection. The three principles that make up the DSM and guide the WTO are: the environmental rules must be applied fairly and non-arbitrarily, the attempts must be multilateral, and the rules must be clearly designed for environmental protection and conservation. Though many environmental interest groups claim that the WTO has historically made rulings favoring trade and industry over the environment, it is actually the principles of the DSM that the WTO is abiding by. A great example is the Shrimp-Turtle case discussed in DeSombre and Barkin's article. When the WTO ruled against the U.S. law aimed at protecting turtles in 1998, it was not because they were trying to protect trade interests but because the law did not satisfy the non-discrimination criterion of the DSM. When the United States changed the way the law was implemented in 2001, the WTO ruled in favor of the U.S. (DeSombre and Barkin, 12). This demonstrates the level-headedness of the WTO in making environmental decisions.

            Though it has been argued that the WTO does not specialize in the environment and is therefore unqualified to make these types of legislative decisions, the converse would also be true about environmental specialists. If those who specialize in the environment are making decisions about environmental policy, they could easily overlook aspects that involve trade and industry. States can propose environmental legislation with ulterior motives. While many environmentalists were upset about the 1998 ruling in the Shrimp-Turtle case, the WTO understood that the U.S. could have been discriminating against countries who produced products in certain ways. Its ruling ensured that it was not allowing unilateral actions to be made (GPB 171). The expertise that the WTO has in its realm ensures that if states propose legislation that aims to further their personal economic interests or harm the economy of another state under the cover of legislation for environmental protection, it will not pass. The inherent connection between trade and the environment makes it absolutely necessary that the body that makes decisions about international trade has the power to make rulings about international environmental policies.

            The mechanisms that the World Trade Organization has in place to make rulings about the environment have proven fair and effective. Trade and the environment are inseparable issues, especially as the world continues to develop and globalize. The trade-based solutions made by the WTO play a large role in global environmental politics, and rightfully so. Rather than viewing the WTO as an adversary or enemy, it is important that environmental interest groups work together with the World Trade Organization in order to accomplish their goals.

Conca, Ken, and Geoffrey DaBelko, eds. Green Planet Blues: Four Decades of Global

            Environmental Politics. 4th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2010.

DeSombre, Elizabeth, and J. S. Barkin. Turtles and Trade: The WTO’s Acceptance of        Environmental Trade Restrictions. MIT Press. Web. 26 Sept. 2014.