Studying links between trade and environment

The environmental repercussions of trade and development policies will need to be considered and addressed in ways that are consistent with the continued promotion of sustainable development.

Studies aimed at better understanding of the relationship between trade and the environment result in promotion of sustainable development.

It is indisputable that trade policies have a significant effect upon the environment. International trade expansion has led to rapid growth in export-oriented industries. The composition of a country's exports depends on the resource endowment and stage of industrialization. At the early stages of export expansion, internationally competitive industries have been mostly labor-intensive processing and assembly operations, or downstream processing of local raw materials. Extractive and processing industries generate large quantities of wastes.

Energy industries have many serious environmental impacts. Industrial employment opportunities have drawn migrants to the cities, contributing to rapid urbanization. Rising incomes have brought construction booms and a virtual explosion in motor vehicle traffic. All these growth-related phenomena have in the aggregate generated new and increased environmental pressures.

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.