TRADE sanctions should be imposed on countries damaging the environment to gain a competitive advantage on world markets, according to a report published yesterday by Oxfam to mark World Environment Day.
"Unacceptably low environmental standards are not a source of legitimate comparative ad vantage, but a form of exploitation which creates unfair competition", said Oxfam policy adviser Ms Mary Van Lieshout.
"It is time environmental costs were reflected in the price of products. Environmental damage, like many other subsidies, should be considered illegal and the justification for trade sanctions", she said.
According to Oxfam, the World Trade Organisation is unable run willing to tackle issues of environmental protection and sustainable development because of its determination to expand trade "at all costs".
The report highlights the impact of trade liberalisation on the environment, citing an official Mexican investigation which found only a third of the US owned plants which relocated there complied with its toxic waste laws.
Another survey found heavy metals and other toxic discharges were being emptied into open ditches. "In the border town of Matamoros the incidence of an encephalic (brainless) baby births is 30 times the Mexican average."
The report calls for "parity of standards in production" to be enforced by trade sanctions, if necessary, and also for the transfer of resources and technologies to enable developing countries to meet higher standards.
Speaking at the report's launch in Dublin, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, said "appropriate ways" would have to be found to incorporate the market, force of "green consumerism within international trade agreements.
