Trade and Climate Change: Unveiling the Principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities from the WTO Agreements
36 Pages Posted: 10 Jan 2015
Date Written: July 1, 2010
Abstract
Climate change is reshaping international law as we speak. In the past, it might have been possible to separate aspects of international law into different "boxes." In the current state of affairs, however, one can observe environment and health policies impacting directly on the trade agenda and vice versa. The most current illustration of such interactions concerns the impact of climate change policies on multilateral trade regulation. This Article examines whether climate change policies are consistent with World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements, especially General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994. This Article argues that the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities reflected in the WTO legal system and in the climate change multilateral regulation should be used by WTO dispute settlement bodies to help resolve trade and climate change disputes. This Article then attempts to apply this new approach to a WTO Panel examining the trade restrictive aspects of the current draft of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.
Keywords: trade, climate change, WTO, common but differentiated responsibilities
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