The United States has been consistently trying to use environmental concerns as a weapon in its trade wars, and its unilateral decision that shrimps harvested without using turtle exclusion devices is the latest in a series of such attempts. In 1991, a GATT panel ruled against the imposition of a US embargo on Mexican tuna, because tuna-catching methods in Mexico did not exclude dolphins also being trapped.

The panel then ruled that although Article XX(V) of the GATT allowed countries to restrict imports so as to protect animal health or natural resources, the US position was untenable because any harm taking place occurred outside US jurisdiction. Several years later, the EU brought a second complaint to GATT objecting to an embargo on tuna from countries which import and processtuna from Mexico.

Even this embargo was struck down by the GATT panel. Some environmentalists have argued that unless such laws are agreed to internationally, there will be a destruction of the global commons. But as environment expert Vandana Shiva pointed out, the average fisherman in India does not use trawlers, and their harvesting methods do not endanger turtles. The economist Jagdish Bhagwati has argued that cross-country intra-industry differences in environmental standards reflects a diversity of preferences.

Poorer countries, for example, may attach less importance to controlling pollution than do rich countries. The US' attitude, which seeks to impose its domestic notions and preferences on the rest of the world, is blatant ecological imperialism. More importantly, it is part of a well-thought-out trade strategy. Too often, protectionist interests cover themselves with the cloak of environmental piety, merely to camouflage their true intentions.

There is a lesson in all this for India. Thefirst is the obvious one that multilateral action through the WTO can help weaker countries. The more subtle one is to learn how to impose and operate non-tariff barriers.

With tariff barriers increasingly becoming bound at lower levels, recourse to non-tariff barriers has become more and more important. We also need to find innovative ways to impose non-tariff barriers, apart from the concessions regarding subsidies and quantitative restrictions which we already have access to as a developing country.

The object of such an exercise will be to generate bargaining counters, and concessions on eliminating such barriers can then be exchanged for trade concessions from the developed world.