Globalisation, Trade and the Environment: Broadening the Agenda after Seattle?

Environmental Liability, Vol.8, p. 106, 2000

28 Pages Posted: 9 Mar 2011

Date Written: March 8, 2000

Abstract

The role and the activities of international organisations used to be discussed mainly between academics, NGOs, diplomats and, more generally, among those interested in international affairs. Notwithstanding the important role played by such organisations in our daily lives, their activities escaped the attention of the general public and their work rarely made the headlines. Greater attention was paid to the work of a few international organisations, particularly the UN, but such focus was often limited only to the duration of a specific crisis or emergency.

Such situation has somehow changed, particularly in the past few months, when certain international institutions have found themselves increasingly on the centre stage and their activities have become the focus of intense scrutiny and criticism. For example, the third Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) held in Seattle in December 1999 was sabotaged by demonstrators. Protesters highlighted the growing concerns raised by globalisation and particularly by the promotion of free trade, perceived as a threat, inter alia, to the environment. Demonstrations in Washington on 16 and 17 April 2000 raised similar fears about the activities of two other major international economic institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Several environmental NGOs were among the groups demonstrating in Seattle and Washington to express their preoccupation for the environmental costs of the activities of these international economic institutions, perceived as being at the forefront of the process of globalisation. The events of Seattle and Washington could mark a turning point and represent an opportunity to reform international economic institutions to increase public participation and accountability.

This article will focus on one specific issue highlighted by the demonstrations in Seattle: the tension between trade rules and environmental protection. This issue will be analysed mainly by concentrating on the experience and practice of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the WTO.

Keywords: Trade and Environment, WTO, International Environmental Agreements

Suggested Citation

Galizzi, Paolo, Globalisation, Trade and the Environment: Broadening the Agenda after Seattle? (March 8, 2000). Environmental Liability, Vol.8, p. 106, 2000, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1781262

Paolo Galizzi (Contact Author)

Fordham Law School ( email )

33 West 60th Street
New York, NY 10023
United States

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