Introduction to the Special Issue-Trade and environment: local versus multilateral reforms

Abstract

[We] must ensure that ordinary citizens in all countries actually benefit from tradeÑa trade that...protects the environment.President William J. ClintonState of the Union Address, 19 January 1999The hullabaloo that was the World Trade Organization's millenium meeting in Seattle has shown us that ordinary people have serious misgivings about the multilateral trading regime-both the rules and the process. Future progress in trade liberalization will depend on convincing the wider public that trade agreements are good for the environment and good for development (including labour and human rights), not just GDP. This is more than a public relations challenge. The concerns voiced by the Seattle protesters-some of them, anyway-raise profound intellectual questions.