IMPLICATIONS FOR WTO OF TRADE BARRIERS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL REASONS
Tom Verbeke
Centre for Environmental Economics and Environmental Management (CEEM)
Ghent University

The WTO has often been seen as a regulatory constraint on the environmental policy freedom its members enjoy. In this paper, we look at some of the WTO articles and agreements and look at the way in which WTO panels and the Appellate Body have interpreted them. It will be argued that the WTO is moving towards equilibrium between legitimate environmental concerns and international trade. The Appellate Body has argued on more than one occasion that the members have the right, and even the obligation, to protect the environment and that members enjoy the right to determine the level of environmental quality they deem appropriate. If their environmental policies affect trade, the WTO requires that these policies are even handed in terms of the burden imposed on imported and domestic goods, are related to the objective in an 'means-ends' way and do not discriminate in an unjustifiable of arbitrary way. There is however still uncertainty with respect to the ability of WTO member countries to use non-product related production methods in their environmental policies. This paper argues that the CTE should try to clarify if members are indeed allowed to use non-product related production method-based environmental policies.