The General Agreement: From Tariffs and Trade to Sustainable Development

Authors

• Mark Anthony Drumbl, Washington and Lee University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Canadian Business Law Journal

Publication Date

1995

Abstract

In order to deal adequately with the immense environmental problems we face, it is not sufficient to clean up past mistakes. We must also restructure traditional trade practices to curtail future environmental harms. This article is an attempt to offer ideas as to how such a restructuring could take place.

Environmental degradation is increasingly becoming an issue of global security. Water depletion, air pollution, deforestation, soil erosion, and the possibility of rising sea levels in overcrowded regions are all phenomena that may prompt mass migrations. This, in turn, might incite group conflicts. In this regard, environmentally related issues could constitute the major foreign policy and national security issues of the 21st century. Given these facts, any restructuring of the rules regulating environmentally harmful activity must emanate from and be enforced by the international community at large. In order to be successful, environmental management necessitates international co-operation. International trade policies of the next century must not repeat the mistakes of the 1970s and 1980s. The tragedy of the commons can be avoided through the implementation of sustainable development at the global level.

Recommended Citation

Mark Anthony Drumbl, The General Agreement: From Tariffs and Trade to Sustainable Development, 25 Can. Bus. L.J. 357 (1995).