GATT, Implications on Environmental Laws: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, First Session, September 27, 1991

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Page 88 - Subject to the requirement that such measures are not applied in a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between countries where the same conditions prevail, or a disguised restriction on international trade...
Page 81 - No prohibitions or restrictions other than duties, taxes or other charges, whether made effective through quotas, import or export licenses or other measures, shall be instituted or maintained by any contracting party on the importation of any product of the territory of any other contracting party...
Page 82 - Article shall not extend to the following : (a) export prohibitions or restrictions temporarily applied to prevent or relieve critical shortages of foodstuffs or other products essential to the exporting contracting party; (b) import and export prohibitions or restrictions necessary to the application of standards or regulations for the classification, grading or marketing of commodities in international trade...
Page 8 - States were accepted, each contracting party could unilaterally determine the life or health protection policies from which other contracting parties could not deviate without jeopardizing their rights under the General Agreement.
Page 87 - ... to international norms. While the development of international consensus around environmental standards may be a desirable objective, there are several reasons to suspect that the intent of harmonization proposals is to undermine progressive environmental standards, while removing standard-setting processes to institutions that are less accountable to the community and more amenable to corporate influence and control. To begin with, harmonization proposals are being promoted...
Page 79 - Humanity is conducting an unintended, uncontrolled, globally pervasive experiment whose ultimate consequences could be second only to a global nuclear war.
Page 84 - In the only GATT study to specifically address an environmental dimension of international trade the phenomenon is described this way: ... polluting industries in the countries with the most exacting standards would thus become relatively less profitable, their expansion would slow relatively to that of corresponding industries, and there would be a tendency for these industries to move out of countries with relatively heavy direct costs of pollution...
Page 90 - Exceptions to the Agreement 1 . Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to prevent any Party from taking any action or not disclosing any information which it considers necessary for the protection of its essential security interests relating to the procurement of arms, ammunition or war materials, or to procurement indispensable for national security or for national defence purposes.
Page 19 - ... to co-operate with one another in harmonizing such policies, nor the right of the CONTRACTING PARTIES acting jointly to address international environmental problems which can only be resolved through measures in conflict with the present rules of the General Agreement.
Page 84 - explained" in response to proposals to establish worker and community "right to know" legislation: It is a fact that if unnecessary or excessive costs are introduced unilaterally by any country, (or province), innovation and development will simply cease or be transferred to jurisdictions with a more favourable business climate. Should this happen in Canada, it would be quickly reduced to a warehouse for chemicals.34 In the only GATT study to specifically address an environmental dimension of international...

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