Environment under the WTO and the CTE

While the World Trade Organization does not have rules that are specific to the environment, to energy or to Climate Change per se, there is no doubt that the rules of the multilateral trading system – as a whole (i.e. the WTO ‘rule book’) – are indeed relevant to Climate Change. In fact the Preamble to the WTO Agreement explicitly mentions ‘sustainable development’ as one of its fundamental objectives. Moreover the WTO rule book authorises its Members to give priority to environmental concerns, provided this is done in a non-protectionist manner. It is therefore not a case of trade ‘trumping’ the environment. ¹