Introduction: the international trading system

Environmental law is often described as a still ‘young’ discipline, and the law of sustainable development is barely in its infancy. Trade law has deeper foundations. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) came into effect in 1947, when ‘environment’ simply did not exist as a policy issue. As environment and sustainable development entered the political radar screen in the 1970s, the United Nations (UN) was seen as a more appropriate forum for their international development than the GATT. The societal and environmental relevance of trade rules has only slowly become clear, and environmental concern is being accommodated within those rules even more slowly.

Environmental lawyers often approach trade as a threat to environmental protection. Trade rules can constrain the autonomy of states (or the European Union (EU)) to set standards pursuing social objectives such as public health or environmental protection; and even when states join together in treaties promoting environmental protection, the relationship between core trade law and those ‘multi-lateral environmental agreements’ (MEAs) is uncertain. And the effects of trade liberalisation go beyond regulatory effects: transport of goods around the world has obvious environmental implications. And ‘free trade’ promises greater production and consumption – all things being equal, increasing pollution and resource use.