International trade may present a danger to the environment, hence a number of international
environmental law agreements limiting trade have been established. Trade presents a direct
harm to many threatened animal and plant species. CITES, which sets limitations on
international trade, works in this area. The goal of CITES is to adequately protect threatened
wild species from their overconsumption.
Restricting trade to protect the environment may, however, conflict with the rules of
international trade law, which are based on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the
General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT). International trade law aims to remove
restrictions on free trade. However, the GATT includes general exceptions that allow certain
restrictions on trade for environmental protection purposes.
This thesis discusses measures of the CITES convention and their congruity with GATT.
CITES authorises countries to implement trade suspensions, export quotas and conditions trade
on submitting CITES permits. The general exceptions allow for limits on free trade if they
protect animal and plant species and do not constitute arbitrary or unjustified discrimination.
Aiding in the interpretation of the GATT agreement is the extensive case law of the dispute
settlement body (DSB) of the WTO.
Despite the DSB progressively being more in favour of limitations for environmental
protection, the standards of assessment towards individual measures are still rather strict. The
largest obstacle to environmental protection through trade limitation is the chapeau of the XX.
Article of GATT, which prohibits arbitrary or unjustified discrimination. No dispute
concerning measures of the CITES convention has yet been brought before the dispute
settlement body, however, a few CITES measures could be considered inconsistent with
GATT.
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