Trade Liberalization and Environmental Protection

Since the 1970s,environmental issues have gradually assumed importance in trade discussions.Trade liberalization and environmental protection have become increasingly interlinked because of the marked development of international trade and its seriously degrading effect on the environment.The WTO,as the sole international organization regulating trade,has inevitably come into the spot light.A clear reference to the importance of sustainable development lies in the preamble of the WTO and in the establishment of a new Committee on Trade and Environment(CTE).However,the role of the WTO in this issue is still hotly debated.Liberalists maintain that the WTO,as a trade-regulating body,has gone too far in environmental protection whilst environmentalists claim that the WTO has not gone far enough.This paper attempts to analyze the role of the WTO in the complicated linkage between trade liberalization and environmental protection,concluding that only under certain circumstances can the WTO play an active role in making trade liberalization and environmental protection mutually supportive.