Regional trade agreements and environmental provisions for sustainable development

Over the last few years, the number of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) has increased dramatically, and hardly a month passes without new trade agreements being negotiated or notified. UP to September 2006, some 349 RTAs had been notified to the GATT/WTO, of which 229 were notified after January 1995. In the near future, if RTAs reportedly or already under negotiation are concluded, the total number of RTAs in force might soon reach more than 400. Meanwhile, thereare concerns that the proliferation of RTAs could create problems of coherence and consistency in trade relations; put developing countries at a disadvantage when negotiating RTAs; and generally divert negotiating resources and energy from multilateral negotiations. Hence, it is important to promote transparency in RTAs and to ensure the consistency of RTAs with WTO rules. Trade and environment debates have traditionally seen developing country negotiators cautious about incorporating environmental considerations into multilateral trade agreements. Similar concerns apply to the integration of environmental considerations into multilateral trade agreements. Similar concerns apply to the integration of environmental considerations into RTAs. With the current proliferation of RTAs, and the variety of environmental arrangements contained in them, some countries are faced with the increasingly complex problem of managing various levels of environmental commitments and different types of environmental cooperation programmes under a range of RTAs to which they are parties.