A Decision That Rocks the Boat : Imports: Global trade rules become a threat to environmental sensibility.

In response to a complaint by Mexico, a panel of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) has determined that a U.S. law banning the import of tuna harvested by methods that result in the excessive killing of marine mammals violates the principles, norms and rules--in short, the laws--of the international trading system.

While this ruling is not of the magnitude of the fall of communism, it is nonetheless a portentous decision that will be cited in the recounting of events that helped define the new world order.

According to inside accounts of the as-yet-undisclosed finding, the GATT panel based its verdict on the principle that it is inappropriate for one country to dictate how others produce goods for export. Since this decision flies in the face of what Daniel Yergin calls the Third Wave of environmental activism, whose watchword is sustainability --a term meant to convey the notion of environmentally responsible production--it makes GATT appear largely irrelevant but nevertheless an obstacle to a rapidly evolving new global society.

The ruling also creates a dilemma for the United States. The Bush Administration appears to face a choice between violating GATT, which it is understandably loath to do, or abandoning a trade measure that supports sustainability. The latter course could anger Congress, which last May granted the Administration fast-track negotiating authority for a U.S.-Mexico-Canada free-trade agreement only after the President promised to address environmental concerns.

GATT’s Mexican tuna decision was not an isolated event but the opening round of a battle between environmental leaders and laggards, which will end only when international rules are adopted regarding the way products are produced or harvested. This will take years, at least on a global scale, if for no other reason than U.S. resistance to such rules.

In the meantime, advocates of sustainability will insist that environmentally responsible production and development be achieved worldwide by any means necessary. As a result, the GATT ruling will either be reversed or ignored. Thus, a sharp increase seems inevitable in the rate at which states resort to enviro-economic diplomacy--the use of trade, aid and other economic instruments to promote sustainable production in other countries.

The United States, under pressure from Congress and domestic environmental groups, will be a major practitioner of such diplomacy. It will also be a target of it.

There is ample reason to expect that other countries will increasingly use trade measures to pressure the United States into adopting environmentally responsible production processes and consumption patterns. If the Bush Administration thinks that GATT will provide a fig leaf big enough to cover America’s environmental sins, it should think again.