THE ROLE OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) IN THE PROTECTION OF ENVIRONMENT REGARDING TO PROMOTE SUISTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (S000174)

The liberalization of the trade and its effects on the sustainable development is becoming a trend in recent years. The WTO as a prominent trade organization is believed in having a significant contribution on the environmental degradation. In eenvironmentalists' point of view, they argued that this organization does not consider environmental aspect while economists believed that this organization has been doing some efforts in environmental protection, especially sustainable development as regulated in the Preamble of Marrakesh Agreement which established the WTO in 1995.

The purposes of the research are to comprehend the regulations on environmental protection in regard to sustainable development under the WTO regime, then to examine the role of the WTO in the protection of environment regarding to promote sustainable development and finally to identify the obstacles faced by the WTO in promoting the sustainable development.

Library research is applied in this thesis. The data used are primary data, such as statutes, secondary data, including law books, journals and papers, and dictionary along with encyclopedia as tertiary data All the data obtained from the library then processed systematically and analyzed.

The results of the research show that under the WTO regime, there are some agreements supporting the protection of environment such as GA Tr article XX, TBT and SPS Agreement. In addition, it has some fundamental efforts in environmental protection by including an idea to the objective of sustainable development in Marrakesh Agreement, the establishment of Committee on Trade and Environment, the role of the DSB in tackling some cases related to environment, making the system more transparent by welcoming NGOs' participation in the DSB and lastly, all those roles were concluded in WTO DOHA ministerial declaration in 2001. Yet, it cannot be denied that in implementing those agreements, this Body faces some obstacles, for instance, gap among member state, diverse business interest and difference in interpretating article XX ofGATT 1949.

It is recommended for member states of the WTO to respect and implement the regulations under the WTO in a good faith. For the WTO, it has to concentrate on its crucial mission to enforce the regulations of the trading system to its member state and ensure that the agreements under its Body are applied, not just to assuage environmentalists' demands.