WTO And Environmental Protection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

WTO And Environmental Protection - Essay Example This essay stresses that WTO plays as a protector and promoter of free trade while at the same time respecting the necessity for environmental protection and the rights of individual nations to set their standards. There main environmental debate that WTO is involved in revolve around two issues – one whether WTO should be concerned with disputes and litigations concerning environmental protection at all and the other that WTO is actually used as tool by nations to by-pass environmental concerns and indulge in rapid and unsustainable development. This paper makes a conclusion that it is seen in several cases that were brought to the WTO that accuses nations were employing domestic environment related laws to mete out discriminatory treatment to different countries. In the cases of the US embargo on imports on shrimps from India and other Asian countries and of the US embargo on tuna from Mexico it was seen that US used its domestic laws in a discriminatory manner. Similarly, in the case of Venezuela gasoline imports, the US appeared to be favoring its domestic gasoline refineries over the imports under the guise of its Clean Air Act. In all the three circumstances, WTO took the trade perspective that US should not be allowed to use environmental protection laws as a ruse for benefiting some favored nations and discriminating against others or in order to provide benefits to domestic producers.

Asian Currency Crisis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Asian Currency Crisis - Research Paper Example Credit was made available from abroad cheaply and in large quantities because of the implicit government guarantees (Hale, 2011, pg. 2) The Asian Financial Crisis was also a set back from its artificial growth from the 1980’s until July of 1997 where its growth was fueled primarily by â€Å"hot money† that expects high profit on a short term. This â€Å"hot money† kept pouring in South East Asia (around half of all the investments that went in the developing countries) as a result of high interest rate which made investing in that part of the world attractive. As a result, asset prices rose with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) registering from 8-12 %. While this was initially laudable, this was not sustained as real total factor productivity growth, or productivity output, especially in Thailand is not commensurate to its financial growth. Such, this continuous capital inflow into Thailand formed into a bubble fueled by â€Å"hot money† and not by total pro ductivity output. And as the bubble furtherly developed, it required more and more â€Å"hot money† needed to sustain it until it burst resulting to the Asian Financial Crisis of July, 1997.