Trade, Environment and Sustainable Development

The concern labelled ‘Trade and Environment’ is not so much about the linkages between liberalised international trade and environmental degradation, as about the whole question of sustainable development and how this type of development can be furthered by international commerce. Indeed we would be starting off on the wrong foot if we were to ignore the advances made at Rio in translating the poetry of environmental protection into the practicality of sustainable development. The realisation that international trade and sustainable development are not incompatible is a significant advance from the earlier debate, which presumed that international trade and development could only be at the expense of the environment.