Is the WTO the only way? safeguarding multilateral environmental agreements from international trade rules and settling trade and environment disputes outside the WTO

Intended for governments, this policy brief recommends other fora, outside of the WTO, for debating and settling the relationship between trade and environmental issues in particular the principles dictating the WTO/MEA relationship and for settling disputes between trade and environment matters.

It begins by illustrating what it sees as the failure both of the current WTO negotiating process to find a political and juridical solutions and public international law to offer any clear legal guidance as to how a trade and environment disputes should be solved.

Possible alternative fora explored for debating the trade and environment relationship include:

• the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
• The United Nations International Law Commission (ILC)
• The International Court of Environmental Arbitration and Conciliation (ICEAC)
• a possible independent working group of interested Governments

Options for an alternative mechanism to that of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) include:

• the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)
• the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
• the International Court of Environmental Arbitration and Conciliation (ICEAC)
• a Joint compliance & dispute settlement mechanism for multiple MEAs

recommendations as to what role UNEP would be expected to play in facilitating the implementation of the options proposed are also highlighted:

• focusing on strengthening its technical role in order to influence the policy debate by becoming a key player on technical grounds
• establishing a “clearinghouse” within UNEP for identifying successful examples of MEA trade-measure implementation.

The report concludes that more suitable alternatives to the WTO do exist and are available for governments to exploit, both for debating the principles dictating the WTO/MEA relationship, and for settling disputes between trade and environment matters.

The report’s authors prefer the International Court of Justice and the United Nation’s International Law Commission as the most suitable options for clarifying the WTO/MEA relationship due to their:

• legal and environmental expertise
• the transparency of their process
• their independence from trade interests.