Multilateral Environmnetal Agreements Multilateral Environmental Agreements & Global Economy

Annotated Bibliography

This document addresses an important issue of inconsistency between World Trade Organization's measures and multilateral environmental agreements. The document presents an argument on how the inconsistency between the MEAs and WTO can be mitigated and how clear trade facilitating policies which give equal consideration to environmental protection measures can be promulgated and maintained globally.

The document mainly presents an argument regarding a strong need of development of an organization which can have a strong control over environmental issues and which can actually act as a unilateral platform for hundreds of MEAs can mitigate the harsh impacts of WTO's measures. For this purpose, a foundation of World Environmental Organization will be exactly what is needed (and North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) can actually act as its prototype). Furthermore, an elaboration of organizational structure and its functions is also given.

The document also presents a historical account of this tug of war between MEAs and harsh measures of WTO. As per it, this inconsistency initiated after World War II due to economic depression and since then, World Trade Organizations has been actively designing and promulgating policies with a single aim: Facilitate global trade and economy (irrespective of giving any consideration to ecological protection). Furthermore, since there is an asymmetry in between MEAs and WTO, therefore MEA cannot enforce their measures forcefully, however various methods have been suggested by NAFTA, CTE, and GATT to reduce this asymmetry.

This document helps in gaining an understanding of current economic issues faced by inconsistency between power of WTO and many other MEAs and also explains the importance of a single platform for addressing environmental issues.

Singh, N. (2009).Trade Related Environmental Measures in Multilateral Environmental Agreements and the WTO: Irreconcilable Differences? American Journal of Economics and Business Administration, 1 (3): 251-256

This particular article gives a detailed account of discrepancies between the measures taken by MEAs (mainly known as Trade Related Environmental Measures) and WTO's policies. there have been continuous efforts made for reconciliation of both, however no significant success has been viewed up till now. The author was influenced by this issue and conducting an analytical study which emphasized on evaluating that how coherence can be achieved in between TREMS and WTO's policies which are significantly different from each other. For this purpose, the author has used possibility of incorporating Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, The Public International Law and other international case laws, into the policies of WTO, as a solution of this asymmetry.

The document presents an idea that instead of taking aggressive trade measures, a sustainable growth mode addressing environmental issues by considering international case laws and Public laws, can be an acceptable solution.

The article is particularly helpful in gaining an understanding of a viable solution which might prove to be helpful in resolving the differences between the TREMs and WTO's rules.

Brunner, A.E. (1997). "Conflicts between international trade and multilateral environmental agreements," 4 Annual Survey of Int'l & Comp. L. 74 (1997). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=annlsurvey

This article is a significant piece of work because of its elaborative nature. The document is an impressive attempt of presenting a detailed account of disputes between MEAs and WTO. The main emphasis of it is to identify the possible reasons for such conflicts and presenting strategies for mitigating them.

For this purpose, the document entails a description of usefulness of various trade measures proposed by MEAs and also discusses various multilateral environmental agreements in great detail for supporting this point. For this purpose, the point has been made by extensively discussing the TREMs in terms of safety of Ozone, Fauna & Flora.

It further describes the measures taken by WTO and GATT which have given rise to a tension between many MEAs and these huge global organizations. Various articles related to protection of environment...

Hence, more preference is given to the establishment of trade. Various cases are also discussed to strengthen this argument.
Furthermore, an assessment of possible solutions available is given which would help in reconciling the differences between the policies of these MEAs, WTO and GATT.

The article is particularly helpful in gaining understanding of the root causes which are possible reasons for stressed terms between MEAs and WTO. Also, it gives reasonable solutions after thorough consideration of individual policies of these two parties.

Brack, D. & Gray, K. (2003). "Multilateral Environmental Agreements and the WTO." The Royal Institute of International Affairs: Sustainable Development Program. Retrieved from http://www.worldtradelaw.net/articles/graymeawto.pdf

This report presents a debate as to how Multilateral Agreements can gain equilibrium in the motives of environmental protection and economic stability globally. It gives a detailed account of major MEAs and their specific objectives along with the international cases handles by them. The report itself comprises of two parts where one is related to analyze the effectives of these MEAs and second part deals with the conflicts between these MEAs and WTO. The report gives rise to various questions towards productivity of TREMs in a realistic frame of reference.

The main objective of this document is to assess the usefulness of these MEAs in facilitating international trade. For this purpose, the report perform a detailed analysis of the trade measures incorporated by these MEAs in their charter of accounts, their purposes, their impacts on international trade and their effectiveness in achieving their objectives. Furthermore, the document also presents an overview of other possible alternatives that can be adopted in the cases where these TREMs have been proved ineffective. It also presents an idea as to how enforcing some of the MEAs is actually hampering international trade.

The second part of this report is particularly helpful in understanding how WTO also plays a significant role in environmental protection and the possible reasons for detailed analysis of conflicts between MEAs and WTO.

Where most of the literary works support the compliance of MEAs in international trade, this document is particularly helpful in understanding the effective measures taken by WTO for environmental protection and also critically analyzes the benefits of TREMs and their material benefits in terms of international trade.

Krist, W.(2001). "The WTO and MEAs: Time for a Good Neighbor Policy: A Policy Brief from a Trade and Environmental Forum." Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Washington D.C. Retrieved from http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-wto-and-meas-time-for-good-neighbor-policy

This particular policy brief is an impressive attempt of defining various measures which if adopted, can lead to formulation of amiable relations between MEAs and WTO. Its sole objective to analyze the working of models of these two parties and presenting possible policies which can align the objectives of MEAs and WTO and make them function in a symbiotic manner.

Since it was drafted in 2001, therefore it has recommendations for possible areas of consideration which could have been discussed in the convention European Union in 2002. The brief explains why the basic objectives and policy structures of these two global parties are highly different and conflicting in nature. The brief presents various solutions as to how WTO needs to be clarified to ensure appropriate deference to MEAs and how the organizational structure of these MEAs needs to be strengthen in order to have sufficient strength for presenting their point.

The report further entails guidelines as to how new trade agreements should be made considering the objectives of MEAs and WTOs and also how the old ones can be amended. Additionally, it also sheds light on the dispute resolution mechanism between MEAs and WTOs. Recommendations for suitable dispute resolutions are also given.

The report critically analyzes as to why countries are reluctant to support these MEAs. It also gives guidelines as to what areas should be considered by these MEAs which would be equally facilitated environment as well as international trade. It also emphasizes on the fact that in order to gain global grounds, it needs to come up with policies which are well-accepted by countries across the World.

The policy brief is helpful in understanding the manner in which WTO and MEAs are operating currently and also how these two bodies can facilitate each other, in international trade agreements.

Eckersley, R. (2003). The WTO and Multilateral Environmental Agreements: A Case of Disciplinary Neoliberalism? Australian Political Studies Association Conference, University of Tasmania, Hobart. Retrieved from http://www.ecolomics-international.org/tandea_robyn_eckersley_impasse_04.pdf

As per the work of Eckersley, the dispute resolution mechanism is rather different in MEAs. Therefore, parties are not provided with reasonable right to challenge the trade rules of these MEAs. On the other hand, WTO provides reasonable grounds to the conflicting parties to engage in bilateral discussion and resolve them accordingly. These disputes are further, discusses in the light of international trade agreements. Where MEAs provide set of flexible measures dealing with non-compliance issues, WTO has rather strict policies of highly punitive nature. Furthermore, MEAs structure lack the political consideration which is well-reflected in the policies and procedures of WTO and is also exercised by its members on various occasions. Furthermore, WTO has complete rights…