Trashing Free Trade: The Basel Convention (part 1)

With the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, free trade should be on the rise. The WTO has been heralded as the mechanism for a new era in global trade liberalization. Howeven new non-tariff trade barriers are gaining increased acceptance around the world in the form of multilateral environmental treaties with trade enforcement measures. The most significant, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, seeks to impose environmental regulations and outright trade bans. This treaty is a direct challenge to the notion of a free and open global market.