The environment is one of the newer arrivals at the trade negotiating table. At the start of the Uruguay Round in 1987, it was nowhere to be found. By the end, in 1994, sustainable development had made it to the preamble of the final agreement as one of the overriding goals of trade liberalization. And trade was one of the earlier chapters of Agenda 21 at the 1992 Earth Summit. This should not be surprising. As the Brundtland Commission had pointed out, the earth’s environment and its economy are now so closely interlocked that actions in one area are bound to affect the other.
