The WTO : environmental friend or environmental foe?

Abstract: The world’s fisheries and marine ecosystems are in danger of collapse. Fish is a highly traded commodity worldwide and the WTO regulates most global trade. Yet, overfishing is an environmental problem and the WTO is not an environmental organisation. Due to its power and reach, increased observance of sustainability could be very influential. It is argued that a tool like ecolabelling can improve the WTO’s environmental record. The methods used are legal and literature analyses. In order to identify the status quo of the WTO in relation to sustainability, it is analysed in terms of its social justice performance. It is discussed why and how ecolabelling could improve the current situation by relying largely on the results of a legal analysis of ecolabels in the WTO. The conclusion is reached that ecolabelling indeed has the potential of both alleviating overfishing and making the environment feature more strongly in the WTO.