The Agenda: "To Make International Trade and Environment Policies Mutually Supportive in Favour of Sustainable Development."¹

Introduction

At the time of the United Nations (U.N.) Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, the persistent effort by governments during the previous half century to remove barriers to the free movement of goods among nations had contributed to a rise in living standards unparalleled in world history.² Liberalized trade had also wrought an ever richer network of economic and social interactions among nations that helped reduce political tension and international armed conflict.³ With this affirmative history in mind, the Rio Declaration ordains: "States should cooperate to promote a supportive and open international economic system that would lead to economic growth and sustainable development in all countries, to better address the problems of environmental degradation."⁴

The second half of the 20th century also saw deepening economic disparities between the wealthiest and least wealthy individuals and nations, intensification and proliferation of violent civil strife and regional conflict, and perceptible deterioration of the environment locally and globally in most parts of the world brought about in considerable measure by the prodigious activities of people and businesses engaged in the production and consumption of the ever-increasing quantity of goods flowing in international trade.⁵ Cognizant of this darker side of the late 20th century, the world's leaders at Rio also undertook to "cooperate in the essential task of eradicating poverty as an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, in order to decrease the disparities in standards of living and better meet the needs of the majority of the people of the world."⁶ They further committed themselves to "reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption" in order to "achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people."⁷