International Trade and the Environment: An Outright Concern of the WTO

Trade and the environment have always been contentious global issues. With the implementation of multilateral, plurilateral, and bilateral agreements, international trade has increased significantly over the years. Free trade and trade liberalisation increases economic activity, which further enhances a nation’s wealth and progress. On the other side, this may also lead to the use of all of our nation’s natural assets, whether they are minerals, woodlands, fish stocks, and other natural reserves. International trade thus creates huge environmental degradation when the environmental determinants are not properly looked into. If there are appropriate global trading practices that increase a nation's national wealth, it can lead to greater as well as better sustainable standards. Conserving the environment through the implementation of appropriate plans and policies is critical to achieving the goals of international environmental sustainability. The World Trade Organisation plays a major role in the international law realm in balancing the tension between trade and the environment, though it was not established with the aim of protecting the environment as such from the negative impact of world trade. The various multilateral and plurilateral agreements of WTO, along with Article XX exceptions of the GATT, constantly address all these issues. Hence, the object of this paper is to carefully examine the interrelationship between WTO, trade, and the environment, as well as to look into the impacts of trade on the world environment and how the WTO agreements and key provisions address these critical issues.