ABSTRACT
Trade liberalisation has slowed down in the post-Seattle environment, and it will probably remain this way for some time. However, the post-Seattle world is still a world in which the globalisation process is proceeding, because globalisation is about much more than strict trade liberalisation. Globalisation is fundamentally a multidimensional phenomenon about movement: the movement of goods, capital, people, and ideas. The multidimensional process of globalisation has several consequences. The trade and environment regime centred within the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), developed since 1993, could provide an interesting model or a source of inspiration for the World Trade Organization (WTO) system. NAFTA was presented in 1994 as the 'greenest' trade agreement ever made, because it has several specific provisions that integrate sustainable development concerns. First, NAFTA's preamble includes a commitment to implement the treaty in a manner consistent with environmental protection and conservation, as well as commitments to sustainable development and the enforcement of environment laws and regulations.
