Free Trade and the Environment

what should environmentalists say about free trade? Many environmentalists object to free trade by appealing the " Race to the Bottom Argument. " This argument is inconclusive, but there are reasons to worry about unrestricted free trade's environmental effects nonetheless; the rules of trade embodied in institutions such as the World Trade Organization may be unjustifiable. Programs to compensate for trade-related environmental damage, appropriate trade barriers, and consumer movements may be necessary and desirable. At least environ-mentalists should consider these alternatives to unrestricted free trade if they do not prevent the achievement of other important moral objectives, can efficiently reduce environmental problems, and institutional safeguards can prevent their abuse. Law at the University of Pittsburgh. She writes primarily on political philosophy and ethics and focuses, in particular, on global economic and environmental justice. She is also interested in methodological issues in philosophy and the other social sciences. Her articles have been accepted in journals such as the American Philosophical Quarterly, Public Affairs Quarterly, and Utilitas. at which predecessors to this paper were presented. Finally, the author is thankful for the support she received from the American Association and the Earhart Foundation during the course of the project. She sincerely apologizes to anyone she has forgotten to mention. This essay expands upon some ideas in Nicole Hassoun, " Free Trade, Poverty, and the Environment, " Public Affairs Quarterly 22, no. 4 (2008): 353–80. This essay's second half also draws on many of the arguments in that paper in considering objections to using trade policy to protect the environment. That paper, however, also considers an argument for free trade from a concern for the global poor.