ABSTRACT
Linking trade liberalisation, environmental protection, and social cohesion in mutually supportive ways has long been a challenge for the global community. The connection among these three realms was first forged in practice almost a century ago with the emergence of the first multilateral environmental agreements with trade-restrictive provisions. It was identified in principle three decades ago when the Stockholm Conference of 1972 first advanced a series of environmental precepts distinctively different from those at the heart of the traditional multilateral trade regime. More generally, among publics in North America, Europe, and Asia, the earlier consensus on the value of trade liberalisation began to erode as anxieties about the social and environmental impacts of globalisation grew. In addition, a central feature of the analysis is the central place given to the societal dimension of the trade-environment debate. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
