Essay on Uruguay Round and the Environment !
The Uruguay Round was launched before environmental concerns became as prominent as they are today. At the same time, expectations of the contribution the GATT can make to improve environmental protection must be realistic. However, GATT is not equipped, or intended to become involved in reviewing national environmental priorities, setting environmental standards or developing global policies on the environment.
During the negotiations, some contracting parties have been pursuing an agenda on environmental measures and international trade. But these things were not explicitly raised in the agreed-upon the mandate for the negotiations. This is not to say that environmental concerns have been entirely ignored in the round and it is a very far cry from the criticism sometimes made that the Uruguay Round is fundamentally unfriendly to the environment.
Need for Realistic Expectations:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
It has already become clear the GATT’s competence is limited to trade policies and those trade-related aspects of environmental policies that may result in significant trade effects for contracting parties. GATT is not equipped to become involved in the tasks of reviving national environmental priorities, setting environmental standards or developing global policies on the environment, and there is no intention for it to do so.
The GATT seems to be becoming harder to consider in a purely domestic context the value placed on environmental resources. That is clearly so in the case of the ozone layer, the oceans and the world climate, which have to be shared internationally. It is increasingly the case as well as for tropical forests and endangered species, whose services are valued by the rest of the world for absorbing carbon dioxide and providing a source of biodiversity. And it is felt to be the case, in some circles atleast for the pollution of the environment in a foreign country, even when the pollution remains entirely within that country’s national frontiers.
Notification Related to the Environment under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade:
Since the middle of the 1980s, protection of the environment has become more widely cited as an objective and rationale for applying technical regulations.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Signatories to the Tokyo Round Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade are required to notify other parties through GATT secretariat of products to be covered by their proposed technical regulation. Each notification includes a brief indication of its objectives and rationale if the regulation differs from international standards, whenever the regulations are expected to have a significant effect on trade of the parties. The protection of human health or safety, animal or plant life or health, or the environment are among the reasons foreseen in the Agreement for which parties may find it appropriate to adopt technical regulations or standards which differ from international standards.