MAKING THE WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION GREEN

MAKING THE WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION GREEN

– VINEET PRAKASH
Dayal Singh Sandhya College, New Delhi

Abstract
Sustainable development is the buzzword in policy-making circles and linking of trade among nations with environmental standards has been a part of discourse on conservation of environment since the 1990’s. This paper attempts to examine the position of United States of America on the issue of linking trade and environment in World Trade Organisation. It takes a look at the sincerity of US and other key member states of WTO about protecting the environment. The paper assesses the position of various members of WTO on the issue of environment in the various environment related trade disputes brought before the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism and through it, an effort is made to gauge the commitment of various countries to the cause of safeguarding the environment. The varying stand on environmental issues of US, EU, Japan and other major economies of the global trading system convincingly proves that it is not about environment but about protecting market share and trade interest and environment is used either as a shield or a weapon depending on the requirement of the situation by the developing world to protect its trade interests. So the fear of the developing countries about developed countries using environment to restrict their market access to the developed world markets are not completely unfounded. For all countries trade interest is paramount and their stand on environment changes according to what suits them in a situation.