Economic Integration, Cooperation, and the Asian Environment

Deepening regional and global economic integration is raising the demand for greater international cooperation on domestic resource and environmental policy issues. Concerns over competitiveness effects and disguised protectionism have generated opposition to this trade and environment linkage. The debate has centered primarily in the GATT / WTO, and in trade provisions of multilateral environmental agreements, and has the potential to undermine the rules-based trading system on which Asian developing countries are particularly dependent. Asian developing countries have mounted a broad range of responses and initiatives in subregional, regional and global fora related to cross-border environmental interactions, reflecting the varied nature and scope of environmental concerns, but much remains to be done. Greater scientific and socioeconomic research is needed, as is greater dissemination of existing knowledge and a clearer delineation of WTO’s mandate. Smaller groupings, such as APEC, may be useful fora for initial discussions and activities.