In the early 1990s, there were two significant events affected the whole world dramatically. One was that the completion of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 19941. It is believed that trade liberalization is important to enhancing world economic welfare. The other was that the concept of sustainable development was arisen during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in June 1992 and the concept was stressed in the Rio Declaration. Environmental protection has become an exceedingly important objective. As time going, people are more and more concerned with the environmental degradation and tried to find out the cause. Some believe that free trade leads to depletion of natural resources and pollution of environment. Some identify poverty as the primary cause of environment degradation and recognize the need for a new era of economic growth. Some countries use trade measures to protect environment, but are opposed by some other countries. The linkage between trade and environment becomes a major controversial topic in the areas of both international environment law and international trade law. The Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE)2 was established aiming to identify the relationship between trade and environmental measures in order to promote sustainable development. However, so far the connections between the two fields remain unresolved and controversial. It is clear that the opinions of those who are primarily concerned with the environment are completely different from those prefer free trade, and there are also obvious difference in attitude to the issue between developed and developing countries.
This article is to briefly outline different points of view and attitudes, discuss some important cases in this area, and try to provide our suggestions based on the different solutions. [首页] [上一页] [下一页][末页]
