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Information revelation and structural supremacy: The World Trade Organization’s incorporation of environmental policy

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  • Tana Johnson

Abstract

The international trade regime offers various instruments by which states can pursue environmental policies, even at the expense of freer trade. Why - and what are the implications? This article traces environmental instruments to pressures on governments when the World Trade Organization (WTO) was designed in the early 1990s: environment-related trade disputes were on the rise, environmentalists were concerned even with regional trade agreements, and countries from the North and the South clashed over the possibility of green-protectionism. Today, WTO-permissible environmental instruments share key features: 1) information-revealing conditions compel states to divulge private information in order to maintain trade-restricting environmental measures, and 2) that information is funneled through the trade regime’s formal dispute settlement mechanism, endowing WTO rules and officials with structural supremacy over areas of international law that lack such mechanisms of their own. An illustration from the WTO’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement shows how this works in practice, putting trade law experts in the delicate position of adjudicating in matters beyond their area of expertise. Examining this advances knowledge in political science, law, and policy: about dispute settlement, institutional design, and information-provision in international organizations. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

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  • Tana Johnson, 2015. "Information revelation and structural supremacy: The World Trade Organization’s incorporation of environmental policy," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 207-229, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:revint:v:10:y:2015:i:2:p:207-229
    DOI: 10.1007/s11558-015-9215-y
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    1. Noémie Laurens & Jean-Frédéric Morin, 2019. "Negotiating environmental protection in trade agreements: A regime shift or a tactical linkage?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 533-556, December.
    2. Tana Johnson & Johannes Urpelainen, 2020. "The more things change, the more they stay the same: Developing countries’ unity at the nexus of trade and environmental policy," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 445-473, April.
    3. Thomas Dörfler & Mirko Heinzel, 2023. "Greening global governance: INGO secretariats and environmental mainstreaming of IOs, 1950 to 2017," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 117-143, January.
    4. Sébastien Jean, 2020. "How the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Reshaping the Trade Landscape and What to Do About It," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 55(3), pages 135-139, May.
    5. Jason S. Davis, 2022. "Screening for losers: Trade institutions and information," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 1-37, January.
    6. Christina Davis, 2015. "The political logic of dispute settlement: Introduction to the special issue," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 107-117, June.
    7. Berger, Axel & Brandi, Clara & Bruhn, Dominique & Chi, Manjiao, 2017. "Towards “greening” trade? Tracking environmental provisions in the preferential trade agreements of emerging markets," IDOS Discussion Papers 2/2017, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    8. Brandi, Clara & Schwab, Jakob & Berger, Axel & Morin, Jean-Frédéric, 2020. "Do environmental provisions in trade agreements make exports from developing countries greener?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).

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