World Trade Organization

Surrounding the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994, scholars discussed whether the new organization would contribute to a shift of global environmental governance toward more market-based mechanisms. According to the most favored nation clause, a WTO party has to grant any trade advantage it concedes to any one country to all other parties. The WTO treaties also include clauses that qualify the applicability of these and other non-discrimination principles. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) grants “general exceptions,” including for measures “necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health” and for the “conservation of exhaustible natural resources”. The unprecedented WTO dispute resolution mechanism has come to cover a series of disputes over domestic environmental laws, from fisheries governance and species protection to natural resources conservation, air pollution, and health standards.