Trade versus environment

A new round of trade talks was launched by the World Trade Organization in Doha, Qatar last year. If the venue struck one as remote, that was the idea, given that the 1999 meeting in Seattle had been embarrassingly disrupted by violent protests over the environmental (and social) costs of free trade. These costs are real and must be faced. However, recent legal and political developments are beginning to resolve the conflict between trade and environment, and are providing new opportunities to reform some environmentally pernicious and politically entrenched public policies.