Abstract
In 1979 the Brandt Commission recommended that an international trade organization incorporating both GATT and UNCTAD was the objective towards which the international community should work. This dream came true in January 1995 when the World Trade Organization (WTO) became the successor to GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. But the WTO can not deal with trade in isolation since it is linked with many other fields: labor, development or environment. If the importance of protecting the environment is clearly acknowledged in the preamble of the agreement that established the WTO, it doesn't seem to be the main concern in the negotiations. Two different conceptions concerning the impact of trade on environment are usually referred to: while environmentalists (mainly NGOs) think that the WTO works against the interests of the environment by supporting non-restricted trade that curbs environment-friendly policies, the WTO asserts that environment protection and trade can be mutually supportive. The WTO can argue that substantial rules created to permit environment protection do exist: beyond the "general exceptions" recognized in stalwart WTO rules, many agreements dealing with one specific field (technical barriers, biosafety, and services) aim at ensuring cooperation and protecting the environment.
But the WTO role concerning environment, the efficiency of its legal codes and procedures have often been questioned. If one can first consider the environment-friendly aspect of WTO law and processes, one must also point out that trade can tend to hamper environment protection as shown in the numerous disputes occurred between WTO members about the conflict between trade and environmentalist policies
