Reuters | October 5, 1999
International action to protect the global environment is under threat from the drive toward trade liberalization in the World Trade Organization (WTO), a leading environmental group warned Monday.
The World Wide Fund for Nature published a list of international environmental treaties that could be undermined by new world trade negotiations, due to be launched at a meeting in Seattle in late November.
It called on WTO members to guarantee that trade measures in environmental conventions be free from legal challenges within the Geneva-based global trade watchdog.
"International treaties to protect our global environment are vulnerable to challenge under WTO rules if they contain trade clauses," Charles Arden-Clarke, head of the World Wide Fund's trade unit, told a news conference.
Among the treaties at risk, Arden-Clarke pointed to the Convention on Biological Diversity signed by 175 nations to preserve the earth's genetic mix, the Basel Convention on the export of hazardous waste and the Biosafety Protocol on trade in genetically modified organisms.
The Biosafety Protocol was blocked last year by a U.S.-led group of countries, which was worried it would restrict bulk commodities trade.
The group also cited the WTO's ruling against a U.S. ban on imports of shrimp from countries that did not use turtle-friendly nets, and its ruling against the European Union's ban on U.S. beef produced using hormones.
The group said it was not opposed to the new round of negotiations per se, but insisted that the talks should not extend into new areas such as investment.
It said liberalization in some areas, particularly a reduction in farming and fisheries subsidies, could even benefit the environment.
The 15-nation EU has championed including environment issues in the next world trade agreement, but has found little support.
Copyright 1999, Reuters, All Rights ReservedReuters:
