THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
A Guide for Environmentalists

Steven Shrybman, Executive Director
West Coast Environmental Law
March 1999

Draft

© COMMON FRONT ON THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
Changing Canada’s role to defend environment, social Justice and democratic rights
Council of Canadians
Canadian Environmental Law Association
Canadian Labour Congress
Polaris Institute
Sierra Club of Canada
West Coast Environmental Law

© FRONT COMMUN SUR L’ORGANISATION MONDIALE DU COMMERCE
Transformant le rôle du Canada de défendre l’environnement, la justice sociale, et les droits économiques
L’association canadienne du droit de l’environnement
Congrès de travail du Canada
Institut Polaris
Sierra Club du Canada
West Coast Environmental Law

For additional copies, contact
West Coast Environmental Law
1001 – 207 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1H7
tel: (604) 684-7378
fax: (604) 684-1312
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www.wcel.org

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

PART 1: THE BIG PICTURE

1.1 The WTO and International Trade
1.2 Trade and the Environment

PART 2: THE KEY AGREEMENTS OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION

PART 3: THE GLOBAL COMMONS

3.1 The Use of Trade Measures to Enforce Multilateral Environmental Agreements

PART 4: NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION UNDER THE WTO

4.1 Forests
4.2 Fisheries

PART 5: AGRICULTURE

5.1 Agriculture, Trade and Global Warming
5.2 Food Security
5.3 Food Safety
5.4 The WTO Agreement on Agriculture

PART 6: ENERGY

NAFTA Revisited
Global Trade’s Energy Appetite
A Carbon Tax as a Border Tax Adjustment

PART 7: ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS

7.1 Environmental Standards and Other Technical Barriers to Trade
7.2 The Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement
7.3 The First WTO Trade Ruling

PART 8: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

8.1 Biodiversity, Farmers Rights and IPRs
8.2 Technology Transfer

PART 9: TRADE RELATED INVESTMENT MEASURES

9.1 The MAI in Five Easy Pieces
9.2 Environmental Conditionalities: and Other Greenwash
9.3 Exceptions and Reservations

PART 10: TERMS AND REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION

The WTO represents the most important element of an international corporate strategy to codify the rules upon which a global system of investment, production and trade depend. While this agenda is fundamentally the project of the world’s largest corporations, it also enjoys broad policy support from many governments. Their enthusiasm seems founded on the faith that sustained market-driven growth will bring wealth and economic stability to their nations. In order to achieve this prosperity, governments need only allow market forces to operate unfettered by regulation or other government "interference."

If this sounds familiar, that’s because this global economic model is simply an amplification of the policies — de-regulation, privatization and free trade — that have guided domestic policy for the past decade. Absent, as always, is any notion of ecological limits, or of the need to address how the proceeds of growth will be distributed. Also missing is any real evidence to support the grand claims of those promoting liberalized trade and investment rules.

In fact, our experience with this grow-now, pay-later paradigm shows that it has been a disaster for the environment and most of the world’s population. Whether measured in terms of wealth distribution, environmental impacts, or economic stability — globalization of the world’s economy has accelerated our course along a path that appears to be headed towards an ecological dead-end.

While multinational corporations have existed for many years, the advent of truly global and integrated production and distribution systems — globalization — is a relatively recent phenomenon. When the world is viewed from this global corporate perspective the notion of national regulation is extremely problematic. In a world of fickle capital investment and volatile stock markets, any degree of government regulation can interfere with the imperative to maximize growth and profits. But even more important is the fact that laws and regulations that differ from place to place are entirely incompatible with free capital flows or the integrated production of commodities and products for global markets.

That is why the essential thrust of modern trade and investment agreements is to reduce, and even eliminate, the capacity of national and local governments to regulate the corporate sector. It matters not whether the purpose of that regulation is to protect the environment and public health, preserve biodiversity, conserve natural resources, promote sustainable economic development or accomplish other societal goals.

This explains why international trade and investment rules have now emerged as a powerful force discouraging environmental initiatives. Moreover, when governments fail to heed the constraints imposed by trade rules, the enforcement machinery of these international regimes is invoked to challenge offending environmental protection, conservation and public health measures.

However, we believe that in confronting the enormous challenges the WTO represents we have an important opportunity to develop alternative models for economic and social development that are just and ecologically viable. If, as environmentalists, we are to respond to these challenges, we will have to move beyond the symptoms of destructive and unsustainable development policies, and confront the underlying economic, and trade policies that drive them.

The following assessment touches on the most important areas where the trade and environment agendas intersect. It is organized to allow those with particular interests to find the issues, eg. forestry, food safety, biotechnology, environmental standards, energy, etc. that are most important to them. We begin with an overview of the WTO, and describe how in a general way its agenda impacts environmental law and policy. With this introduction, we continue with the exploration of how trade rules will affect the specific environmental and conservation goals that we are working to achieve. [Table of Contents] [Parts 1 to 5] [Parts 6 to 10]