Suchergebnisse

The emergence of a worldwide environmental movement in the early 1960s accompanied an international expansion of economic activity and applied technology. The principal medium through which this expansion progressed was trade. In 1947, following World War II, a series of international agreements were negotiated to regularize international relations in finance, monetary policies, and trade. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was negotiated without anticipation of an international environmental movement and new policies at the national level that did not reflect, and might be inconsistent with, economic values. Conflict between policies for freedom of trade and environmental protection did not immediately emerge. With the adoption of numerous environmental protection measures in the United States and many other countries after 1969, the incompatibility of some trade and environmental policies became political issues. Trade policies are not confined to economic changes. Policy issues developing around the agreement and environmental protection are complex, and frequently involve technological issues, as in the Mexican tuna controversy discussed in this paper.

In December 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, over 160 parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC or Convention) adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which, for the first time, establishes legally binding limits for industrialized countries on emissions of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases." The Kyoto Protocol (the Protocol) is quite complex, reflecting the complicated political, economic, scientific and legal issues raised by human-induced climate change. The result of more than two years of preparatory discussions and eleven days of often-intense negotiations in Kyoto, the Protocol will be opened for signature in March 1998 for one year, although countries may accede to it after that period. It will enter into force ninety days after at least fifty-five parties to the FCCC, encompassing FCCC Annex I parties that accounted in total for at least 55 percent of the total emissions for 1990 of carbon dioxide (CO2) of Annex I parties, have ratified, accepted, approved or acceded to the Protocol.