Box 5-A--Trade/Environment and Sustainable Development: The UNCED Perspective

Trade and environment concerns will be considered cross-cutting issues, relevant to several agenda items, at the June 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. Delegates at the final UNCED preparatory meeting (in March 1992) included several trade/environment principles in a draft text on international cooperation for providing a supportive climate to help developing countries accelerate sustainable development.l

The text calls on governments, through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and other multilateral forums, to "make international trade and environment policies mutually supportive in favor of sustainable development"; to clarify the role of GATT, UNCTAD, and other international organizations, including in conciliation or dispute resolution; and to encourage a constructive industry role in dealing with environment and development issues.

In a section on activities for "developing an environment/trade and development agenda," the draft text calls on governments to encourage GATT, UNCTAD, and other relevant international and regional economic institutions to consider examining several propositions and principles. To paraphrase a few of these, the draft calls on these institutions to consider ways to:

• Avoid unilateral actions to deal with environmental challenges outside the jurisdiction of the importing country. Instead, environmental measures addressing transborder or global environmental problems should be based on international consensus.

• Deal with root causes of environment and development problems so as to avoid adoption of environmental measures that unjustifiably restrict trade.

• Ensure that environment-related regulations or standards (including health and safety standards) do not become a disguised restriction on trade.

Many of the provisions relate especially and explicitly to developing countries. For example, the draft calls on relevant institutions to:

• Encourage participation of developing countries in multilateral agreements through such mechanisms as transitional rules.

• Keep in mind the special factors affecting environment and trade policies in developing countries. It notes that environmental standards valid for developed countries may have unwarranted social and economic costs in developing countries.

• Encourage an open, multilateral trading system, supported by the adoption of sound environmental policies, that would have a positive impact on the environment and contribute to economic development.

The draft statement recognizes that trade provisions in multilateral environmental agreements in some cases have played a role in tackling global environmental challenges. It suggests several specific activities as steps toward improving the process of addressing environment/trade issues. These include:

• Conducting more studies to understand relationships between trade and environment for the promotion of sustainable development;

• Promoting dialogue among trade, developmental, and environmental communities;

• Clarifying the relationship between GATT provisions and multilateral environmental measures; and

• Ensuring public input in the formation, negotiation, and implementation of trade policies.

The suggested actions focus on trade and development needs. Less attention is focused on meeting environmental protection goals.

1 Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, International Cooperation To Accelerate Sustainable Development in Developing Countries, and Related Domestic Policies (text submitted by the Chairman on the basis of negotiations held on document A/CONF.151/PC/100Add.3, Mar. 31, 1992). The statement will be printed in section 1, chapter 1 of Agenda 21. The draft identified four key items: 1) promoting sustainable development through trade liberalization; 2) making trade and environment mutually supportive; 3) providing adequate financial resources to developing countries and for dealing with international debt; and 4) encouraging macroeconomic policies conducive to environment and development.

The draft text adopted some language from the eighth session of the United Nations Couference on Trade and Development, held in February 1992 in Cartagena de Indias, Columbia.