Making trade greener

FOR DECADES, the dominant view among policymakers was that trade and environmental policy should be kept out of each other’s way. Limited measures to help the environment were allowed under WTO rules, but only so long as they restricted trade no more than was deemed absolutely necessary. Environmental provisions crept into trade deals, but were usually framed as a way to stop partners from gaining an unfair competitive advantage by exploiting natural resources. Trade negotiators tried to slash tariffs on greener goods, including those that measure or reduce pollution, and to agree rules to curb damaging subsidies. But this broadly supported multilateralism while eliminating distortions that they mostly wanted to get rid of anyway.