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EARTH PATROL

Clinton Administration Tackles Symptoms, not Causes, of WTO Problems

The Clinton administration’s proposals for integrating environmental priorities into the World Trade Organization (WTO) address some of the symptoms, rather than the source, of the problem. The problem is simple: The WTO’s rules and procedures are stacked against strong environmental protections. In less than five years, the WTO has repeatedly collided with environmental protections, and each time the environment has lost:

  • A WTO panel found WTO violations in a prohibition under the U.S. Endangered Species Act on imports of shrimp from countries that do not require sufficient protections to prevent the killing of endangered sea turtles in shrimp nets.
  • A WTO panel found WTO flaws in a regulation under the U.S. Clean Air Act designed to improve air quality in polluted cities. The Environmental Protection Agency since changed its regulations to comply with the WTO ruling.
  • A WTO panel found a European Union ban on beef produced with cancer-causing hormones to violate the WTO because the European Union had not definitively demonstrated that the beef would cause harm to consumers.

The only way truly to integrate environmental priorities into the WTO is to reform the trade rules and the decision-making system. The Clinton administration must insist that the WTO does not jeopardize strong environmental protections at the local, state, national, and international level. To ensure that strong environmental standards are not at risk, the WTO must be reformed to protect the following five rights:

1. The consumer right to know which products are environmentally friendly.

2. The right to limit the harmful effects of logging, fishing, and production.

3. The right to have strong environmental standards that use precautions to protect citizen health and the environment.

4. The right to use the government’s purchasing power to protect the environment.

5. The public right to access information about and to participate in disputes, negotiations, and other proceedings that affect public health and the environment.

Before any further expansion of the WTO, the Clinton administration should call for a complete assessment and repair the damage the WTO’s rules and systems cause to health and the environment. To ensure that no further damage is done during this review and repair process, a moratorium should be imposed on WTO challenges to health and environmental protections. The Clinton administration should also stop pushing for the expansion of the WTO’s reach in environmentally sensitive areas, such as forests.

This is not a statement about whether trade is good or bad. It is a demand for change in the current WTO rules which trade away our environmental standards. If the United States does not show leadership and make trade rules work for the environment, the public will not support the administration’s policies.

- Patti Goldman
Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund

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