World Trade Organization - Harvard Model United Nations

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World Trade Organization products industries. These industries are large consumers for industrial chemicals. The increased demand for industrial chemicals coupled with the lack of a strong environmental regulation system in Vietnam has resulted in major toxic and water pollution. 50 Impact of NAFTA on the Environment The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) opened up significant trade between the US and Mexico. However, it has also greatly impacted the maize trade as well as the environment of both countries. Environmental impact in the US Corn is one of the United States’ largest and most chemical-intensive crops. Twenty percent of all the harvested land in the U.S is for corn. Chemical fertilizers are used on the majority of US corn crops and run-off is a major source of water pollution around the “corn belt” in the middle of the country. Most shocking is the presence of a dead zone within the Gulf of Mexico. An area the size of a small US state is completely devoid of all life due to run-off from the Mississippi River, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The environmental impact of growing corn is not just limited to pollution; it also depletes valuable natural resources. The majority of irrigated corn fields reside in Nebraska, Texas, Colorado, and Oklahoma. These states rely on the Ogallala Aquifer which is being depleted at unsustainable rates. These signs of environmental degradation have only been exacerbated by the opening of the Mexican market to US corn. Land in the US that would’ve otherwise been used to grow other crops is now growing corn. The aggregate effects of increased corn production from trade liberalization include 100,000 additional tons of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium-based loadings to US water each year. 51 Environmental impact in Mexico For Mexico, the negative environmental impact of corn trade liberalization is the loss of agro-biodiversity. Mexico has 40 distinct native maize varieties resulting from both natural selection and artificial selection by farmers over thousands of years. Approximately 20 percent use only very little modern fertilizers for chemical inputs. Such agro-biodiversity is important not only because it is a center of Mexican culture, but also because Mexico’s diverse varieties of corn are essential for crop-breeding to meet growing demand for corn varieties throughout the world. 52 The trade in corn between Mexico and the US impacts agro-biodiversity in two ways. Trade liberalization in corn brought a flood of corn imports from the US, cutting prices by nearly 50 percent. This puts pressure on many of the marginal maize farmers that make up the 20 percent of Mexico’s economically active population that grow corn. As farmers lose competitiveness, they will migrate to other areas within Mexico to find better paying jobs, taking the diverse agricultural knowledge with them. 53 The second way trade impacts agro-biodiversity is the contamination of traditional cornfields by genetically modified (GM) corn crops from the US. Research from the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (NACEC) has shown that the spread of GM varieties through Mexico’s corn fields has been more rapid than previously thought, leading to the fear that many traditional varieties of maize will not be able to compete with these new herbicide and Bt tolerant maize varieties. 54 Current Situation Leaders of the G20 rich and emerging economies called for intensified efforts to complete the long-running Doha round of global trade talks, saying 2011offers a narrow window of opportunity. Doha Development Agenda (DDA) The Doha Development Agenda was adopted at the 2001 WTO Ministerial Meeting in Doha, Qatar, starting the Doha Development Round of negotiations that continue to this day. The Doha Development Agenda provides new opportunities for developing nations to help shape the international trade rules, giving these nations more say as they integrate their economies into the world. One of the main issues in negotiations is regarding the environment. Talks surround the issues of reconciling conflicts between WTO trade rules and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and of reducing or eliminating trade barriers for environmental goods and services. 55 The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries already have low or 16 Specialized General Assembly Agencies
zero tariffs on environmental goods and have already begun liberalizing trade in environmental services. Thus, the next steps in the negotiations include reducing these barriers in developing countries, the new exporters in environmental goods and services. 56 For environmental goods, the difference in level of tariffs is high between OECD countries and developing countries. While the average import tariff applied by OECD countries was less than 3% in 1996, the tariffs rate applied by a group of developing countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Malaysia, and Thailand) averaged almost 20%. Currently, the average tariff applied by developing countries has dropped slightly but there are still wide variations. Some emerging economies impose tariffs of almost 30% on environmental goods and services. 57 Barriers to trade in environmental services have been progressing slowly due to previous commitments of OECD and some developing countries. These countries had made binding commitments regarding market access and national treatment for environmental services and thus negotiations have to work around the terms that had already been agreed between countries. Some examples of barriers to trade that still exist include “allowing exports of services only through firms with commercial presence in the importing country; limiting the scope of foreign business to specified activities; and requiring that a specified, significant proportion of staff of the foreign established company be nationals of the host country, regardless of experience or qualifications.” 58 Reconciling Trade Policies with Environmental Policies: Legal framework Conflict with Environmental Protection World trade policies and environmental policies do often conflict. Just as in any issue, one must find where to draw the line between the two sides. Trade policies cannot be pushed to the limit at the expense of the environment and environmental policies cannot be pushed to the limit at the expense of economic development and growth. What follows below are the key legal issues discussed during environment-trade disputes. National Treatment and Product Standards One of the core principles of the GATT system of trade liberalization is called “national treatment.” According to GATT Article III, it obligates governments to treat foreign goods and persons as it treats its domestic goods and persons, thereby making this a rule of nondiscrimination. However, GATT does include some language in Article III that states that regulations General Assembly World Trade Organization and taxes “shall not be imposed in a way so as to afford protection against import competition.” However, this can sometimes cause conflict in the environmental debate. For example, an Ontario regulation imposing a higher tax on the sale of certain type A plastic bowls than on more biodegradable bowls originally has good environmental intentions. However, if the case is that very few Ontario-made bowls are sold in type A plastic bowls while imports from the US are often sold in type A plastic bowls, this regulation becomes discriminatory and thus violates GATT trade rules. 59 The Process-Product Problem One key issue that needs to be resolved is the processproduct problem. Suppose an importing country wants to limit the import of automobiles that do not meet a specific emissions and fuel efficiency requirement. This seems like a justifiable environmental regulation. Now suppose the importing country wants to extend environmental regulation further. Instead of regulating the automobile’s features, the government decides to regulate the factory that produces the automobile. The factory might be one that fails to satisfy the importing country’s own environmental regulations and heavily pollutes the air and water as it manufactures cars. Thus, the target of the government’s regulation is the production “process.” This may again seem like a justifiable environmental regulation. However, experts have argued that this would open a “Pandora’s box” of problems that could open large loopholes in the GATT. 60 For example, an importing country might limit the import of specific electronics because the manufacturing plant in the exporting country pays its employees a wage that is less than the minimum wage specified by the importing country. The importing country’s purpose of specifying a minimum wage is most likely to ensure that goods are not produced in wretched and inhumane working conditions. However, this might run into conflict. If the wage paid in the exporting country is substantial enough to live in that country, then it could be a fair wage even if that wage is not up to the standard specified by the importing country. How could trade policies resolve this dispute? 61 The most famous example of the process-product problem is the Mexican-US tuna dolphin case. In the eastern tropical areas of the Pacific Ocean, schools of yellowfin tuna often swim under the dolphins. When fishermen use nets to capture the tuna, they often trap the dolphins in the tuna, killing them in the end. Thus, 17
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