INTERNATIONAL TRADING RULES & THE POPS CONVENTION

This policy brief by the Center for International Environmental Law argues against the inclusion of a 'WTO supremacy clause' in the proposed POPs Convention and advocates for the use of multilateral trade measures to eliminate persistent organic pollutants. It explains how such measures can be justified under WTO environmental exceptions and argues that multilateral agreements should be presumed WTO-consistent.

• The proposed POPs Convention aims to eliminate twelve of the most harmful persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including dioxin, PCBs, and DDT, due to their ability to persist in the environment, travel long distances, and bioaccumulate in tissue, causing cancer and endocrine disruption.
• The authors strongly oppose the inclusion of a 'WTO supremacy clause' (proposed in article N bis of the draft Convention), which would establish the superiority of World Trade Organization rules over the Convention. They argue such a clause could encourage states to challenge trade measures in multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) at the WTO.
• Trade-related measures are presented as essential tools for the POPs Convention to prevent the export of pollutants to non-party countries and to incentivize broad participation in the agreement.
• Multilateral trade measures are preferred over unilateral ones because they are viewed as less likely to be motivated by protectionism and more likely to be designed equitably, taking into account the needs of both developed and developing countries.
• Under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), trade measures that violate core obligations (like Most Favored Nation or National Treatment) may be justified under Article XX environmental exceptions, specifically those necessary to protect human, animal, or plant life and health (Article XX(b)) or those relating to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources (Article XX(g)).
• The WTO's interpretation of 'like products' often ignores 'production and processing methods' (PPMs), meaning products made with different environmental impacts (e.g., chlorinated vs. non-chlorinated bleaching) are treated as identical, which complicates the regulation of POPs by-products.
• The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) encourage the use of international standards. The authors argue that measures authorized by MEAs should be treated as international standards, granting them a presumption of WTO consistency.
• For intentionally produced POPs, the draft Convention proposes elimination (Annex A) or restriction (Annex B). The authors argue that banning the import/export of Annex A substances once production is banned is protected by GATT Article XX(b).
• The authors highlight a lack of transparency and public participation within the WTO, noting that dispute settlement proceedings are conducted in secrecy and that the WTO may influence domestic environmental policy despite a lack of expertise in the field.

APA

Saladin, C., & Van Dyke, B. (1999). INTERNATIONAL TRADING RULES & THE POPS CONVENTION. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Ptfinal.pdf

Chicago

Saladin, Claudia, and Brennan Van Dyke. INTERNATIONAL TRADING RULES & THE POPS CONVENTION. Center for International Environmental Law, 1999. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Ptfinal.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Saladin |first1=Claudia |last2=Van Dyke |first2=Brennan |title=INTERNATIONAL TRADING RULES & THE POPS CONVENTION |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=November 1999 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Ptfinal.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{saladin1999international, author = {Saladin, Claudia and Van Dyke, Brennan}, title = {{INTERNATIONAL TRADING RULES \& THE POPS CONVENTION}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {1999}, month = nov, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Ptfinal.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }