The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that the United States could not discriminate against imports of shrimp caught without the use of turtle excluder devices which allow sea turtles to escape from shrimp nets (WTO 1998). Similar attempts to protect dolphins and sea birds from the effects of industrial-scale fishing practices have also been struck down (GATT 1991).
2. Trade negotiators operate a priesthood using a language that none but they can penetrate in meetings that none but they may attend.
3. The real fear, seldom acknowledged, is that dealing with the environment means stepping onto a slope that slides inevitably into a morass of social issues, from child and forced labour to the explosive issue of wage differences between poor and rich countries. Secretly, even the most tunnel-visioned trade junkies recognize that failing to deal with environmental problems can and will produce huge market losses, but the specter of the social issues holds them back.