Environmental goods are a key element of the ongoing World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. Conventional wisdom argues that trade liberalization of environmental goods is crucial in the sustainable economic development process as it sustains potential benefits for promoting environmental protection and economic development. For many, the ongoing WTO Doha negotiations represent an opportunity to enhance the mutual supportiveness of trade and environment. However, as this article shows, the policy choice for most developing countries is not so clear–cut. The truth is that most of them might not be better off with ambitious trade liberalization in this sector. This article attempts to answer if trade liberalization in environmental goods helps developing countries. If so, which trade liberalization policy would serve in best interest of as well as benefit these as well as benefit of these countries. Lastly, this article also looks at various scenarios of environmental goods liberalization in the context of the ongoing proposals on the WTO negotiating table and tries to assess how they measure up against the development objectives of the negotiations.
Journal of World Trade