Testimony of Robert Housman of the Center for International Environmental Law on Behalf of the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife Before the Subcommittee on Foreign Commerce and Tourism Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation

The testimony argues that the GATT Uruguay Round Final Agreement is undemocratic and environmentally hazardous. It claims the agreement's dispute resolution mechanisms exclude public participation and that its 'least trade restrictive' standard for Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures would jeopardize numerous U.S. environmental and food safety laws. The author further asserts that the agreement lacks sufficient safeguards to prevent a 'race to the bottom' in environmental standards and that the proposed World Trade Organization (WTO) creates an unaccountable bureaucracy.

• The Final Agreement's dispute resolution provisions are undemocratic because they prohibit citizens from appearing before panels, submitting information, or attending hearings and accessing pleadings.
• The Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) rules require environmental laws to be 'no-more trade restrictive than necessary,' a standard that could allow trade panels to invalidate U.S. laws if a hypothetical, less restrictive alternative is conceived.
• Numerous U.S. environmental and wildlife laws are specifically identified as being at risk under the TBT rules, including the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
• The Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) rules threaten U.S. food safety by requiring standards to be 'least trade restrictive' and based on scientific risk assessments, which may allow trade panels to second-guess U.S. experts.
• The requirement to base standards on international benchmarks may lower U.S. protections due to the 'lowest common denominator problem,' noting that nearly 20 percent of Codex Alimentarius standards are lower than U.S. standards.
• The Final Agreement lacks mechanisms to prevent countries from lowering environmental standards to attract investment and provides only a very limited 'green' subsidy provision for facility compliance.
• The agreement does not protect international environmental treaties, meaning U.S. implementation of the Montreal Protocol or Basel Convention could be challenged if deemed too trade restrictive.

APA

Housman, R. (1994). Testimony of Robert Housman of the Center for International Environmental Law on Behalf of the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife Before the Subcommittee on Foreign Commerce and Tourism Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/GATT_Houseman_3Feb1994.pdf

Chicago

Housman, Robert. Testimony of Robert Housman of the Center for International Environmental Law on Behalf of the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife Before the Subcommittee on Foreign Commerce and Tourism Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Center for International Environmental Law, 1994. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/GATT_Houseman_3Feb1994.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Housman |first1=Robert |title=Testimony of Robert Housman of the Center for International Environmental Law on Behalf of the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife Before the Subcommittee on Foreign Commerce and Tourism Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=3 February 1994 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/GATT_Houseman_3Feb1994.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{housman1994testimony, author = {Housman, Robert}, title = {{Testimony of Robert Housman of the Center for International Environmental Law on Behalf of the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife Before the Subcommittee on Foreign Commerce and Tourism Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation}}, publisher = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {1994}, month = feb, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/GATT_Houseman_3Feb1994.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }