El medio ambiente en la minería

51 ALENA SINOElAR products, as inevitably they will, it needs not get in the way. The GATI does not stand for free trade at aoy cost; it is a flexible instrument for multilateral cooperation and it can accommodate a balanced approach to the use of trade measures for domestic environmental purposes. But evidently, part of its permanent responsibility is to ensure that appropriate safeguards are main– tained for the trade interests of aIl GAIT members. That is most importémt because there are serious dangers ¡nvolved, for both the trading system and the environment, in misusing trade restrictions. By far the most important safeguard provided by the GAIT is the discipline of non--discrimination. lt is the cornerstone of secure and predictable market access and of undistorted trade. It protects the economically and political1y weak from the belligerently powerful. lt guarantees consumer choice. And it gives producers access to the full range of market opporturuties. But perhaps above aIl, the principIe of non--discrimination is common sense, for the en– vironment as much as for trade. It js hard to think of any example where using discriminatory trade measures is essential for effective domestic enVÍfonmen– tal policy-making. When it comes to the international dimension of environmental policy– making, the maio constraint the GAIT imposes is on the use of unilateral trade measures to try to exercise control over the environmental resources or practices of other countries. This invariably violates GAIT principIes of non– discrimination, and it reduces trade policy to a crude tool of foreign policy outside the security of internationallaw. No country is immune to the threat of capricious trade actions by its biggest trading partners. Multilateral cooperation has to be the basis for resolving international en– vironmental problems. Using the stick of trade sanctions to try to achieve short-term environmental goals will undermine the chances for cooperative solutions to be found over the longer-term; and with the environment, it is the longer-term that counts, not quick-flX attempts to patch things up today. Multilateral environmental agreements that command the broad support of the international commuruty have been successfully negotiated in the past, and more need to be forthcoming from the UNCED process this year. It is in the interests of all parties concerned that international environmental disagree~ ment should not be allowed to degenerate into international trade conflicto As part of their work programme on trade and the environment in GATI', the Contracting Parties are informing themselves fully of the trade provision.~ that are included in multilateral environmental agreements, reviewing the transparency of environmental-related trade measures, and examining the