WTO regulations on environmental protection and legal issues in Vietnam

Abstract

Although it is not an international organization specialzing in the environmental field, but the Preamble of the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) has determined that trade liberalization must ensure the sustainable development goals. Many provisions in the WTO agreements allow members to protect the environment. However, there is no specific environmental protection measures as WTO rules. The Trade and Environment Committee (CTE) duties are to study the relationship between WTO agreements and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), to promote negotiation about environmental issues in WTO, but it has not yet achieved much results. In that context, Vietnam as a WTO member, has to consider when applying environmental protection measures, to ensure the consistency with WTO rules.