ABSTRACT
Until recently, international trade and environmental regimes developed almost autonomously. Since general international law lacks effective mechanisms of enforcement, the means of implementation has been left mostly to the discretion of negotiators of multilateral agreements. Traderestrictive provisions have been incorporated into some Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) as an effective enforcement method without suspicion that they might contravene the basic principles of the gradually consolidating regime of free trade. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Panels’ decisions on the Tuna-Dolphin2 dispute first triggered the trade and environment debate. The relationship between trade and the environment is a controversial issue, which currently has more questions than answers.
