The environmental impact induced by free trade
between Korea and Japan
Since the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 endorsed the importance of mutual supportiveness between environmental protection and promotion of sustainable development under the open and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system, the environmental impacts of trade liberalization have become a theme of heated debate at global, regional and national level.
In understanding overall linkage between trade and environment, we need to recognize that trade is not the major factor which causes the environmental degradation. The relation between trade and environment depends on the specialization structure and the inter-industrial difference in induced environmental impacts from production. It is generally accepted that, without appropriate environmental policy intervention, the economic growth driven by trade liberalization may speed up the environmental degradation. But in the long run, international trade could contribute to the environmental protection by facilitating the worldwide diffusion of environment-friendly technologies and goods.
The WTO Annual Report 2003 observed that most WTO members are now party to at least one regional free trade agreement and many to several. And the upward surge in regional trade agreements was most strongly felt in the Asia Pacific region, where countries long in favor of multilateral-only liberalization have whole-heartedly embraced the regional option. Japan, with the entry of its free trade agreement with Singapore in November 2002, became t