Effects of International Trade on the Environment (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Economics - Foreign Trade Theory, Trade Policy, grade: 1, , language: English, abstract: This paper looks into the effects the international trade has on the environment.

Trade and environment is one of the most debated topics in management and economics studies over the years because of the increasing concerns on how international trade affects environment and vice versa. That said, the debate on trade and environment is not new, and it emerged in the early 1970s with concerns such as environmental protection, environmental policies on trade, and the impact on trade on environment. Most of the developed economies expressed interests on environmental degradation linked with the globalization process for instance, industrial pollution. In the 1980s, environmental concerns increased as more complex environmental issues were raised such as the climate change and the depletion of the ozone layer. Later in the 1990s, the sustainable development concept was introduced as trade liberalization and the globalization process accelerated.

Several theories in support of international trade such as the economic theory has rendered the debate complex as the proponents of the economic theory argue that international trade is vital to economies because it results into a robust economic growth and also generates greater wellbeing of its citizens. That said, environmental policies and goals have been difficult to achieve during these debates. Diverse arguments exist about international trade with a few ecologists in favour of environmental protection as they argue that international trade has resulted into environmental depletion as the demand of world natural resources continue to increase. Of the two perspectives, there is an intermediate concept which has been proposed, the sustainable development which means that as international trade results into economic growth, this growth must be accompanied by environmental policies and strict environmental protection rules. Some of the defenders of sustainable development have supported free trade but with the inclusion of restrictions in multilateral negotiations so as to control the degradation of natural resources.