Marine Conservation versus International Free Trade: Reconciling Dolphins with Tuna and Sea Turtles with Shrimp
During the 1990s, the World Trade Organization (WTO) rejected as impermissible unilateral efforts by the United States to promote conservation of endangered marine species through trade sanctions against
other governments. These acts of unilateral economic coercion were held to be discriminatory tactics done in unfair restraint of international trade. But in so doing, the WTO findings aroused the ire of
environmentalists worldwide. These findings by the WTO became portrayed not as decisions upholding free trade, but as mandates against marine conservation and environmental protection. Even so, this denial
of lawful permissibility to use unilateral economic coercion to protect endangered species internationally does not signal the demise of national efforts to conserve living marine resources. Rather, these
WTO findings point up the manner in which potential trade and marine conservation disputes should be handled, i.e., through means of peaceful settlement. The key to future international marine conservation
relies on a multilateral rather than a unilateral approach. Thus, environmentally conscious governments, such as the United States, should continue to encourage global adoption of marine conservation policies
without impinging on international norms and standards of international commercial transactions.
Keywords: DOLPHINS AND TUNA; GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARRIFFS AND TRADE; MARINE CONSERVATION; SHRIMP AND SEA TURTLES; UNITED STATES; WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 January 2000
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