Elements of the Political Economic Conflict between Trade and Environmental Policies

Abstract

There have been several types of political economic conflicts and issues raised concerning the interaction of international trade and the environment. These entail not only the use of trade policies for environmental reasons but certain ‘competitiveness’ issues as well. These are summarized in Table 2.1. As discussed further below, there have been several instances of the use of trade restrictions and/or sanctions to protect environmental resources at both the national and international levels. Nonetheless, they appear to be the exceptions rather than the rules. Most international environmental protection efforts tend to rely much more heavily on voluntary cooperation and peer pressure.