The Impact Of Free Trade On The Environment

The environmental issue is a controversial global issue, many economists believe that free trade can benefit all parties. Free trade is an important factor in the economy to help it grow. There are some economist that believes that free trade leads to environmental degradation by lowering the quality of production, leading to pollution and waste of natural resources. Proponents of trade liberalization argue that free trade actually increases the quality of the environment and help the environment through policies to preserve the environment. Free trade is the purchase and sell of goods and services between countries without any restriction like tariffs, duties or quotas. In 1948 began the liberalization process of lowering tariffs and non-tariff

Therefore, this lead to a higher exploitation of the natural resources, the loss of coastal lands and the destruction of forest and higher levels of carbon emissions in the production process. Also transporting the goods result in the use of more fossil fuels, especially if the distances are longer. Increasing trade, increases our consumption and dependency on oil, which creates a global crisis of climate change. The rise of global temperatures means more severe droughts and floods that will literally change the face of the Earth. As heat waves increase, the extension of plants and animals and other human health also increase. Those are some of the factors why some of the economist believes that free trade harms the

The rules of multilateral trade are designed to eliminate trade-distorting practices, which are harmful to the environment. For example, subsidies to the fishing sector may encourage unsustainable fishing practices, agricultural subsidies can support environmentally harmful agricultural production, and tariffs on environmental goods and services can restrict the dissemination of clean technology. Also there is the environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis, which shows a relationship between environmental degradation and levels of income. This show that in the early stages of economic growth, the environmental degradation tend to be worse, but when the economy rise in per capita income and reach a certain point, the environmental damage reduce. This suggests that opposing them slows down the eventual environmental improvement in poor countries. According to Hassoun, poverty and the environment are connected in a way that poor people do not have access to electricity or gas, so they have to burn a lot of wood and coal to cook. Burning coal contributes about two-fifths of the world 's carbon emissions. By reducing poverty these may help reduce environmental problems. In some countries, the World Trade Organization (WTO) can implement more policies that can be used to progress the situation of the poor while also helping the