Trade And The Environment: The Gatt / Wto Rules And Multilateral Environmental Agreements, The Conflict And Solution

The dispute between trade and environment is never a new question. The relationship between trade and environment contains two aspects: trade has negative affect on environment, while environment imposes restrictions on trade. With the development of global economy and the worsening environment, the conflicts between trade and environment have aroused more and more attention.This paper gives a brief introduction of the conflict history between trade environment, starting from 1970s when the international community began to attach importance to conflicts between trade and environment. And then there is a thorough introduction of the trade clauses in Multilateral Environment Agreements (TREMs) and the environment clauses in the GATT/WTO framework(ERTMs). On the above-mentioned basis, thorough analysis of the nature of the dispute is given. For the solution and coordination of the conflicts between trade and environment, this paper tries to put forward suggestions from various perspectives, such as the legal basis, legal institution, application of international treaties, green growth and so on.