WTO Trade and Environment Jurisprudence: Avoiding Environmental Catastrophe

摘要

Free trade and national environmental protection measures are not always consistent. Yet, the parties to the WTO decided, and committed in WTO law, that even where a national environmental protection measure would otherwise violate a free trade rule of the GATT or GATS, the national environmental measure would generally be permitted, subject to certain conditions. It is important to recognize that member states of the WTO were serious both about allowing great flexibility for national environmental measures, and about establishing some conditions so that this flexibility is not abused. It is also important to recognize that, by establishing the WTO dispute settlement system, member states decided that WTO Panels, and the Appellate Body on appeal, would generally decide disputes about the scope of this flexibility.