CEES
Working Paper Series
#0001 Trade and Environment after Seattle:
A Negotiation Agenda for the South
Adil Najam
Center for Energy & Environmental Studies
Department of International Relations
Boston University |
Introduction
It is, by now, a well established and documented fact that the links between trade issues and environmental concerns are deep, but complex (Runalls, 1996; Uimonen, 1999; von Moltke, 1999; Whalley, 1996). Moreover, there is now a robust literature that convincingly argues that developing countries have legitimate and significant apprehensions about the general direction of global debates on trade and environment (see Nath, 1997; Shahin, 1998; South Centre, 1998; Raghavan, 1999, Youssef, 1999; Halle, 2000). In particular, the developing countries of the South fear that the imposition of Northern environmental concerns on the international trade agenda will a) distract from other more pressing Southern concerns and b) open the flood gates for so-called 'green protectionism' which will be particularly detrimental to developing country products and services.