Environment and international trade

Type :

Presentation

Pages :

5 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

01/15/2009

Category :

Political science

Sub category :

Ecology & environment

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Summary :

Introduction.
Trade and environment in relation to each other.
1. The problem of pollution and Environment protection.
2. Environment and the developing countries.
The legal frame provided by the WTO.
1. Key provisions.
2. Two examples of WTO rulings.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.

Abstract

The warming of the planet and global climatic change has been the centre of heated debate for the last few years. The environmental problems, by the force of nature, somehow set themselves to the political agenda of the planet. In this paper I'd like to see if the concepts of trade and environment protection often cited as opposite are really antagonist, or if in the contrary, there could be a harmonious development of the two concepts. In my second part, I'd like to answer the question whether the WTO, faced to both aspects, chooses to favour trade over environment or if it has a pro environment sensibility. Pollution is commonly seen as the result of market imperfection. Indeed, the market is unable to adjust its prices to take into account two fundamental features of the human social life. The first of those features is the three functions of the environment, that is to say "a consumption good, a supplier of resources and a receptacle of waste" (Butler, 2000, p434) and the second one is the public nature of a good like environment (no one owns for example what we could call fresh air).