GATT TRADE RULES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

This paper addresses the alleged conflict between the GATT trade rules and the protection of the environment by GATT members. The author con tends that the principal objective of the GATT rules on nontariff trad e restrictions is to eliminate government interventions that promote t he commercial interests of domestic producers and consumers in a manne r that discriminates against foreign producers and consumers in either domestic or international markets. He further contends that this obje ctive fundamentally does not conflict with protecting GATT members' do mestic environment or the global environment. The GATT should explicit ly recognize the objectives of environmental protection and natural re source conservation, either by an amendment to the GATT Articles or by resolution of the GATT Council. GATT members, in the interest of prot ecting their national and the global environment, should be free to im pose restrictions on imports or exports so long as the interventions c onform to the following conditions: (i) restrictions do not have the i ntent or significant effect of discriminating against foreign producer s or consumers in favor of domestic ones, (ii) restrictions are in the interest of protecting the global environment where the concerns are widely shared by other nations and do not simply reflect unique and pa rochial views of the individual member, and (iii) restrictions do not constitute an effort to force trading partners to adopt environmental standards of production that have no global or trans-border pollution implications.