WTO And Environmental Protection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

WTO And Environmental Protection - Essay Example This essay stresses that WTO plays as a protector and promoter of free trade while at the same time respecting the necessity for environmental protection and the rights of individual nations to set their standards. There main environmental debate that WTO is involved in revolve around two issues – one whether WTO should be concerned with disputes and litigations concerning environmental protection at all and the other that WTO is actually used as tool by nations to by-pass environmental concerns and indulge in rapid and unsustainable development. This paper makes a conclusion that it is seen in several cases that were brought to the WTO that accuses nations were employing domestic environment related laws to mete out discriminatory treatment to different countries. In the cases of the US embargo on imports on shrimps from India and other Asian countries and of the US embargo on tuna from Mexico it was seen that US used its domestic laws in a discriminatory manner. Similarly, in the case of Venezuela gasoline imports, the US appeared to be favoring its domestic gasoline refineries over the imports under the guise of its Clean Air Act. In all the three circumstances, WTO took the trade perspective that US should not be allowed to use environmental protection laws as a ruse for benefiting some favored nations and discriminating against others or in order to provide benefits to domestic producers.