Meio Ambiente e Comércio

XXII Encontro Nacional de Engenharia de Produção
Curitiba – PR, 23 a 25 de outubro de 2002

AS INTERFACES ENTRE O MEIO AMBIENTE E O
COMÉRCIO INTERNACIONAL
Janis Elisa Ruppenthal
PPGEP – UFSM / Campus - 97105-900 - Santa Maria/RS
[e-mail]

Nilton José Zanini Junior
PPGEP – UFSM / Campus - 97105-900 - Santa Maria/RS [e-mail] Alessandro de Franceschi
PPGEP – UFSM / Campus - 97105-900 - Santa Maria/RS [e-mail] Abstract
The globalization and the commercial liberalism impose reflection and actions of companies and nations about the possible effects of international trading in the environment degradation, as well as about the manger on which the adoption of national environment policies interferes in the equity of international commercial relations. The subjects related to international trading and to the direct foreign investment dominated the discussions about national and international environment policies until the end of the 90´s
(the nineties). When such matters are raised, these are some questions like: Does the process of the economy internationalization threaten the environment it is just an opportunity to preserve it? Don’t the national environmental policies distiguise the commercial relations affecting, in heterogeneous manner, the competitiveness of all countries? How can the commercial restrictions be used to achieve environment goals?
Will the environment preservation be compatible to the commercial liberalism?
Key-words: environmental degradation, international trading, commercial liberalism.

1 INTRODUÇÃO
O tema das relações entre o meio ambiente e o comércio internacional é bastante controverso, tornando-se ainda mais relevante quando se considera o avanço recente do processo de liberalização comercial e sua influência determinante na competitividade internacional das empresas e nações.
Os problemas ambientais estão dispersos, possuindo efeitos presentes e futuros, são locais e globais,