The WTO and the Cartagena Protocol: International Policy Coordination or Conflict?



Current Agriculture, Food & Resource Issues

G.E. Isaac


MEA is narrow, there seems to be an increased likelihood that nations are willing to abide
by the environmental protection measures even if they may, in fact, hinder international
trade, because the measures do not spill beyond this narrow issue. Trade in endangered
species, ozone-depleting substances and hazardous wastes all fit this criterion of being
narrow environmental issues. It appears that while the first factor seems to be a necessary
condition it is not a sufficient condition for a harmonious trade-environment relationship.

The second important factor is the presence of a transatlantic agreement on the issue.
That is, if the United States and the EU can agree that the environmental measure
deserves attention and that the regulatory response outlined in the MEA is acceptable (that
is, there is consistency between the U.S. and the EU regulatory approaches), the
likelihood of conflict with the international trading regime appears to decrease. Again,
protection of endangered species, the ozone layer and domestic biodiversity from
hazardous wastes are policy goals shared with virtually equal fervour on both sides of the
Atlantic.

The WTO and the Cartagena Protocol

Given the above discussion, two overlapping multilateral paradigms - the WTO and the
Cartagena Protocol - can now be assessed again using the institutional analysis
methodology, beginning with a discussion of their respective mandates which,
consequently, manifest themselves into path-dependent regulatory trajectories. The
research question is simple: Are these multilateral paradigms likely to be in concert or
conflict?

The World Trade Organization

The WTO has a narrow mandate of trade liberalization for goods and services based on
the principle of non-discrimination (PND) (Isaac, 2002). There are basically three
concepts embedded in the PND. The first is the concept of
like products whereby trade
agreements do not focus on how a good (or service) is processed or produced, but rather
on the end-use attributes of the good (or service). A cotton shirt is
like a cotton shirt
regardless of whether the cotton was produced in an intensive or organic agricultural
system. The second concept is that of
national treatment whereby foreign goods or
services must be treated the same in terms of market access rules as
like domestic goods
and services. The third concept is that of
most-favoured nation whereby the favourable
market access enjoyed by one particular foreign producer must be extended to all foreign
producers of
like products. Together, these three concepts combine within the PND to
produce multilateral reciprocity. Moreover, they become the default principle whereby
domestic measures are trade compliant if they pass the default test of non-discrimination.
The benefit of this system is that it moves toward a rules-based system, allowing for
international trade to be a commercial function and not a government-to-government
function.

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