Question

Should international trade agreements be extended to include terms of compliance to specific environmental goals?

Hints: Substantiate your answer with facts and data speaking to the environmental impact of international trade negotiations including compliance to specific environmental goals .

Answer 1

International trade agreements plays an important role in global commerce where Nations form a bilateral or a multilateral contract that cover issues far beyond just tariff rates including labour and environmental standards, intellectual property concerns and more . These agreements form extreme Complex standards of compliance for businesses participating in global commerce however the multilateral Framework for trade measures instead of providing a statutory framework for non-compliance only provides guidelines to individual countries participating in global commerce.

In the recent years the concerns have rose more with regard to non economic effects of globalisation that is negative externalities in the form of pollution and environmental degradation due to the Free Rider problem.

As the economic growth resulting from trade expansion can have an obvious direct impact on the environment by increasing pollution or degrading natural resources. 10 effective environmental policies and institutional Framework are needed at the local, regional, National and international levels.

The World Trade Organisation should set up up its subsidiary institution which monitors Framework including policies regarding environmental degradation due to free trade among countries and discourages missguided temptation to engage in a race to bottom . The the suggested framework should include strict liabilities and penalties in case of non compliance of the environmental standards setup by the organisation and signed in the the trade agreement point it must also encourage other countries not to trade with countries who are non compliant with the terms of the contract and have taken no measures to control environmental degradation .